Blueprint for Sustainability

Five years have gone by since the Earth Summit and it is time to take stock of progress. The focus, right now, is on sustainable development as it has made progression in the past five years and to adopt measures to strengthen global efforts to achieve the goals of sustainable development - economic, equitable and environmentally sound.

Review looks at success stories and the failures with an analytical eye with a view to replicate the successes and avoid the failure situations. In India, the “Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development” has been conceived to further the cause of sustainable development. The IMSD is currently operational in 174 districts of the country, which are being covered fully or partly. The programme has been sponsored by the Department of Space and the funds are provided by the Planning Commission or the Ministry of Rural Areas and Employment.

Development Alternatives has been associated with the preparation of an “Action Plan for Sustainable Development” in collaboration with Regional Remote Sensing Service Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Bangalore under the IMSD programme for one Chiknayakanhalli taluk (a sub-unit of district Tumkur in Karnataka). Chiknayakanhalli is being acknowledged as a success story - a trail blazer where the natural resources, the existing institutions and the people’s participation in decision making on the nature of development they perceive to be relevant and their involvement in the implementation of development strategies have been integrated and harmonised. The ‘Action Plan’ is sure to become a milestone on the sustainable development road as a plan for the people, by the people with external facilitators providing sophisticated science & technology tools for construction of a strong, authentic, updated database for decision making.

The uniqueness of Chiknayakanhalli project does not lie in the use of Remote Sensing or advanced techniques such as Geographic Information Systems. All IMSD projects use these tools. The wonderful feature of the story is involvement of nearly two hundred thousand people in designing their destiny, arriving at their own development priorities, identifying their constraints and problems and evolving solutions. It is people’s informed participation that holds the key to successful development and for this, issues of governance - right to information and transparency of processes, transaction and negotiations become a priori imperatives.

Tumkur district lies in the eastern belt of the southern half of Karnataka. Chiknayakanhalli is one of the 10 taluks of Tumkur and has a geographical area of 98,865 ha. The taluk is located between 13°19’N and 13°44’N latitudes and 76°20’E to 76°46’E longitudes. The location map is shown at Fig.1.

The taluk is free from extreme climatic conditions. The year is divided into four seasons - summer (March to May), south-west monsoon - (June to September), post-monsoon period (October and November), and the dry winter season from December to February. In April-May, the maximum temperature may go up to about 35°C and the minimum in December is about 15°C.

The rainfall in the taluk deserves a close look. The annual rainfall ranges from 625 mm to 725 mm. The south-eastern part of the taluk receives more rainfall than the north-eastern part. Most of the rain (70% or so) occurs during the four months of south-west monsoon activities. The rainfall is not evenly spread during this period. The number of days of rainfall is few in number which results in heavy run-offs. The unchecked run-off over the years had resulted in heavy siltation of tanks - traditional water harvesting structures; and these tanks remain mostly dry during the non-rain period (October to May). There are years of drought and scarce rainfall that point towards a major development gap in terms of fulfilment of basic needs and livelihood generation activities through agriculture. It becomes imperative to conserve main water in-situ through water harvesting structures.

There is no perennial major river flowing through the taluks. Two major streams - Torehalla and Karetore join to form the river Suvarnamukhi which flows through the Suvaranamukhi state forest in the north-east of the taluk. A dam across Torehalla provides irrigation water for about 600 ha of cropland. The reservoir created by the dam enables income generation through pisciculture. The taluk is dotted with more than 100 silted tanks which are used as grazing land. The tanks can be desilted and restored for water storage to provide water for irrigation. The potential for canal irrigation is almost non-existent in this taluk.

The taluk can be divided into four watersheds (Krishna basin) which have 24 sub-watersheds further divided into 67 mini-watersheds of 10-30 sqkm. area and 265 micro-watersheds of approximately 5-10 sqkm.

The analysis of the natural drainage system in Chiknayakanhalli has greatly facilitated the formulation of the action plan, particularly siting of water harvesting structures such as check dams and the implementation has been proposed through identified priority watershed and the corresponding panchayats.

Chiknayakanhalli taluk is part of the Karnataka plateau. Most of the terrain (85%) is just plains or very gently sloping plains. Hilly or steeply sloping areas account for not more than 12% of the total area. The slope features are important from the view point of proposed improved land use and cropping pattern. The measures for soil and moisture conservation have also to take this characteristic into consideration.

Soil is an essential ingredient of the primary production system. Very detailed soil mapping for Chiknayakanhalli has been carried out through Remote Sensing imagery with a view to:

Optimal land and water management in Chiknayakanhalli is a crucial objective of the IMSD programme and an important means of achieving it is through effective landuse planning measures. The Action Plan puts forth measures for moving from the present to the suggested landuse system. In the ultimate analysis, landuse choices are an individual/household decision and our effort through the IMSD programme is to facilitate decisions towards a shift to more sustainable landuse practices.

Agriculture land is the predominant category of land use in the taluk and a preponderant part of this land is single cropped during the kharif season. Most of the valley fill areas with good soil and ground water are currently being used as coconut plantations. There is only a very small patch with rabi crop and the lack of irrigation facilities manifests itself in the non-existence of double cropped area. Poorly developed agriculture in the taluk is an important factor contributing to the low levels of overall development, and thus, requires specific attention.

Each segment of land cover has its own story. When we take a look at the cropland, we find that the double cropped area Kharif (rainfed) and Rabi (wintercrop) is confined to 0.01% of total land due to lack of irrigation facilities. Apparently, if the rainfall run-off is impounded in suitable structures, if the traditional tanks could be desilted and ground water sources developed, agricultural activities could be multiplied leading to economic development and additional job creations. The one other interesting aspect of agricultural landuse is that a vast area (almost 27%) of agricultural land is under coconut plantation. Coconut production obviously has great significance in the economic life of the people.

The total forest cover is much below the desired level and of the existing forest 71.50%, is degraded forest. Wasteland takes up nearly 18% of total land and any reclamation of this wasteland will obviously be of great advantage to the people of Chiknayakanhalli.

An important component of sustainability is the ecological soundness of the area. The ecological assessment here is based on an examination of the flora and fauna of forests and wasteland areas; the species diversity levels; and, the main anthropogenic pressures on the forest areas of Chiknayakanhalli. The assessment was carried out through surveys and interaction with the village community and discussions with Forest Department officials.

The natural vegetation of Chiknayakanhalli is thorn scrub habitat, which offers lesser niches for fauna. The main tree and shrub species found in these forest patches are Sterospumum chlenoides, Anogeissus latifola, Callophyllum elatum, Cassia auriculata, Eucalyptus sps., Cassia sema, Hardwickia binnata, Lantana camara, Dodonea viscosa and Boswellia serrata.

Man-wildlife conflicts have been reported from some parts of Chiknayakanhalli like cattle lifting by large felids, livestock depredation by canids, crop damage by the wild boar and the sloth bear, and mauling by carnivores etc. The team’s interaction with local communities and officials has helped identify the important anthropogenic pressures in the taluk : grazing on forest land by cattle and livestock; burning to allow for fresh growth of grass; habitat conversion by planting monocultures; encroachment on forest land and wasteland by villagers; and debarking of Boswellia trees. These pressures are currently manifest in low densities of animals (especially ungulates); lack of food species in the forest; and shrinking forest cover - often too small to sustain a large population of ungulates.

The assessment of the natural resource issues poses some of the challenges for the IMSD programme in Chiknayakanhalli. These are:

A key objective of the IMSD programme is to improve conditions of human wellbeing in Chiknayakanhalli. Human wellbeing is a composite of a variety of parameters and goes beyond the traditional narrow objective of increasing per-capita income levels. The objective of human development has been defined in the UNDP Human Development Report (1991) as enlarging the range of people’s choices in order to make development more democratic and participatory. These choices should include access to income and employment opportunities, education and health and a clean and safe physical environment. The operative words are providing access and enlarging the range of choices. Within the context of Chiknayakanhalli, indeed much of rural India, this should imply giving specific attention to the wellbeing of the poorer sections of the community.

For this study, assessment of human wellbeing has been carried out at different scales - household, village, panchayat and taluk, through a mix of the following techniques :

PRA techniques used for the project include transects, mapping, and focussed group discussions. The group meetings provided a forum to discuss and analyse the major concerns of the people, including the very vulnerable groups. The issues which emerged during the PRA exercises formed the basis of the discussions with the 28 gram panchayats (GP) in the taluk. The GP meetings largely followed a six point agenda: (a) discussion of the major development issues facing the panchayat; (b) what is currently being done to address these issues and the experiences thereof; (c) possible measures of addressing these issues in future; (d) priority proposals for the IMSD programme; (e) the preferred implementation framework; and (f) the GP’s commitments towards community mobilisation, maintenance and monitoring during the plan implementation.

The GP meetings, in due course, developed into effective vehicles of planning and the discussions graduated into a process of strategic negotiation between the GP and the planning team. Based on the experience in Chiknayakanhalli, the team strongly recommends negotiation with GPs as an integral part of all IMSD planning efforts. This could be an effective mechanism of making the plan reflect local priorities and get local support and ownership. Given the present conducive environment for panchayati raj institutions, it is crucial that efforts to strengthen these institutions get priority attention. Engaging them in constructive dialogue is perhaps a good starting point for this process.

While the GP meetings were the most important process of community involvement, the project team investigated specific aspects through household questionnaire survey. The survey covered four aspects: household energy profile; landholding, agricultural and income profile; water for drinking and irrigation; and, factors influencing households to introduce landuse changes.

During the project, formal and informal contact was maintained with the district administration, primarily the Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Parishad and heads of key line departments in Tumkur and Chiknayakanhalli. The project team also presented the salient aspects of the project at the Taluk Panchayat meeting in October 1995.

Community aspirations are a major factor shaping the success of our efforts towards sustainable development in Chiknayakanhalli. Thus, these aspirations will be guiding the very formulation of action proposals. q

Project Team

This project has been successfully completed through the collaborative efforts of the teams from Development Alternatives, New Delhi and Tumkur, and Regional Remote Sensing Service Centre (RRSSC), ISRO, Bangalore.

The following members were actively associated with all parts of the project.

Development Alternatives : Subash K. Marcus, Vijay Pillai, C. Ashok Kumar and George C Varughese

RRSSC-B : S.Adiga, P.K. Ranganath, Manjula Vivak Bhagwat, and J. Krishnamurthy In addition, the following members were associated for different components of the project:

Development Alternatives : R.L. Karale (Advisor); the late D.K. Yadav (Soil Resources); Devendra Giri, Manish Shukla and Masooma Rizvi (Mapping); Sasi. M, Sanjay Kumar and Susy Saji (DTP); S. Prafulla, Syed Atequllah, Shanta Kumar, T.N. Suguna and S. Raghu (Community Interaction); E.B.V. Kumar (Analysis); Aswini Pai (Ecology); and Neeraj Sharma (Assistant).

RRSSC-B : K.S. Ramesh, H.M. Ravishanker, Uday Raj

Chiknayakanhalli : A Blueprint for Sustainability

Development Alternatives has ushered in a new era of hope and confidence into the hearts and hearths of the rural habitants of the 234 villages of Chiknayakanahalli taluk in Tumkur district of Karnataka. South India, by evolving a development plan with a high level of community participation utilizing scientific planning tools like satellite imagery to help the local people build a sustainable future with their own hands.

Chiknayakanhalli is a typical case of economic backwardness coupled with extreme inequalities and a degraded natural resource base. It is spread over 28 panchayats (local governments) and has been declared a crisis zone by the Government of India. An Action Plan has been formulated by Development Alternatives, under the Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development (IMSD) programme of the Government in order to enable the local people to pull themselves up by their own shoe-strings.

With the integrated mission of economic development, equity and environmental soundness, the accent has been on evolving a multipronged strategy of sustainable rapid growth, especially for poorer sections of the society and regenerating the eroded natural resource base. Hence, the Action Plan has been the cumulative result of constant and intense interactions with communities. local authorities and state-level agencies. Incidentally, the latest amendments in the constitution of India have paved the way for panchayats to partake in the decision-making process, thus creating a groundswell of support in Chiknayakanhalli to initiate development activities.

The uniqueness of the Action Plan does not lie so much in the fact that it has used remote sensing or hi-tech planning tools like Geographic Information System (GIS) to design detailed overlay maps and carry out the entire analysis digitally but that the thematic analysis combines natural resources management issues with human and societal needs. The success of the entire venture lies in the fact that about 200,000 rural people were involved in designing their own destiny, setting up their own priorities, spelling out their constraints and arriving at their own solutions - with help from Development Alternatives as facilitator.

Over the period of a year, various assessment methods have been developed and tested at Tumkur, as a part of an IUCN coordinated programme which includes projects in Zimbabwe and Columbia. The methods developed by the India team include “System Analysis and Planning and Strategic Negotiation for Community Action”. A wide range of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques and tools have been field-tested and refined at Chiknayakanhalli.

While system analysis and planning were used to highlight the options for sustainable development, strategic negotiation for community action has been used to evolve consensus on action like ‘What should the development process look like and what role is each stakeholder willing to play?’ The key steps in strategic negotiation included awareness generation, perceptions assessment, consensus building and agreement finalization.

Mapping has been used as a major tool for formulating an Action Plan. Negotiations have taken place through small formal group meetings with gram panchayats and other agencies, and with the small farmers. Model demonstration projects, training programmes and workshops, employment of local communities and specific responses to queries helped in building public opinion, consensus, agreement and, ultimately, action.

The highlight of the Chiknayakanhalli experience has been the establishment of sustainable human development indicators through the Action Plan. The experiment demonstrates the challenges of advocating sustainability within a system dominated by the imperatives of crisis management. Dialogue with stakeholders to discover their real needs and then prioritizing their needs, skills, time and patience. This shared sense of priority has helped the Development Alternatives team assist the acceptance and use of development indicators by linking them with basic concerns. Such sharing also cements partnerships between change agents like NGOs and those they serve.

The major achievement of the venture has been bringing people together by building bridges of network and partnerships at various levels to give a momentum to the development process at the grassroots level to snowball gradually into a national movement towards self-sufficiency and realisation of the potential of people-power. q