August 13, 2010

 Forested ecosystems provide a range of watershed services, including flood control, groundwater recharge, water quality enhancement, and soil conservation. These services are particularly important for a State like Himachal Pradesh where agrarian landscapes downstream are affected by soil-hydrological processes in the upstream forests. In the last few years, the demand for potable water that comes from forested lands has witnessed an increase. The State Forest Department maintains both the quality and quantity of water from forest ecosystems. The Department has launched a number of novel schemes that will make forests, a major source of water in the coming years.

In this series, Chopal Forest Division has been making successful efforts to tap natural water by constructing series of low cost water harvesting structures in selected watersheds. This will promote the healthy growth of plants in the forest nurseries.  The Forest division with 7 ranges, 22 blocks and 73 beats is spread over an area of 7049 Hectares. This is the largest forest area of any single forest division in Himachal Pradesh. Presently, there are about 20 forest nurseries (33 nurseries earlier) in the Division, producing over 2 lakh saplings each year. The planting stock produced in these nurseries is used to augment the green cover of forests in the Chopal area, which has conserved good stretches of forest in southern part of the State.

In the year 2009-10, sixteen low cost water ponds of 5mtx2mtx2mt size have been constructed in the division, near forest nurseries, with a cost of about Rs 15000 each. The cost effective black polysheets of three micron have been used in the construction of these water bodies. Rain water has successfully been tapped in these ponds and will be used in nearby forest nurseries in the coming months.

Last year, the State Forest Department launched 'Van Sarovar' Scheme. Under this scheme, about 200 water harvesting structures have been built in selected watersheds throughout the State to tap the surface runoff. The scheme is being implemented under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) and kachha ponds are being built to improve the moisture content and to check soil erosion. The network of hundreds of such water bodies in deep forests will not only provide drinking water to fauna but will go a long way in combating forest fires.

In Chopal Forest Division, some polysheet-free kachha ponds, water bodies 'Van Sarovar' have been constructed in forests under MNREGA, (one sample pond built near divisional forest office) with an objective of enriching the moisture content of the area. As the collected rain water enters the soil, it is temporarily stored as soil water until it leaves as transpiration or evaporation, subsurface flow to stream channels, or downward movement to ground water reservoirs

The forested watersheds are playing a vital role in the increased usage for fuel, fodder, timber production, recreation, wildlife habitat and land development. The rain water harvesting in Chopal Forest Division is certainly a welcome move and would be replicated in other parts of the State.