Rain water harvesting by fresh water flooded forests / plantations
Teluguseva
Thank you for your paradigm proposal of growing fresh water flooded
forests in water reservoirs.
Your proposal will have substantial contribution in harnessing India’s
water resources fully at a much faster pace. When thick forests and
commercial plantations such as rubber / Pongamia pinnata (bio diesel)
trees can be grown in water reservoirs which are more productive than
agriculture wet lands, there will not be any opposition in sparing
agriculture and existing forest lands for new water reservoir /barrage
projects.
The flooded forest plants/trees are very useful in harvesting /
recharging rain water anywhere such as house plots, farm lands, forest
lands, open areas, river courses, etc. Rain water wherever available
and needed are stored in small pits/ponds/ tanks by growing ‘flooded
forest trees’ for supplementary income.
1. Recharging rain water in the house compounds: Make a pit of 1.5
meters depth with sufficient storage volume to collect moderate
fortnight rain fall. Plant the ‘flooded forest trees’ in this pond
area. When there is rain, the rain water collects in this pond and
slowly percolates in to the ground building up ground water. Thus
trees can be grown and the ground water is recharged for dry season
drinking water purpose.
2. Recharging rain water in open lands of cities and rural areas:
Build a check dam to store water up to 1.5 meters depth and plant
‘flooded forest trees’ in the water stored area. The entire area
becomes woody area in few years and also the ground water is
recharged.
3. Water harvesting in farm lands: Generally the time gap between good
rains is 15 or more days. It is very useful to store the rain water in
a small area of the field and use it to water the crop till the next
rain. Thus the crop yield is assured even in erratic rain fall. Create
a pond of depth 1.5 meters in 5% area of the field and plant the
‘flooded forest trees’. Thus the pond area land also contributes
equally for agriculture produce and stores water for the needs of the
crop.
4. Water harvesting in Forest lands: On the small streams in the
forest area, construct check dams and plant ‘flooded forest trees’.
The rain water collected by the check dam will enhance water
percolation in to the ground. The underground moisture will help the
forest in preventing water stress during summer months. Thus the
growth of the forest is healthy. The forest animals also get drinking
water and shelter during summer months.
As explained above, all the lands are suitable for water harvesting
without losing income from the land by growing ‘flooded forest trees’.
When above practices are intensively and extensively implemented in
India, it will transform the countries landscape fully in to ever
green forest type.
Till now, water storage reservoirs are constructed across the river
valleys to store water to the maximum depth for reducing the land
submergence. With the flooded forests, water reservoirs/barrages can
be located in plain areas also with average water storage depth of 8
to 10 meters. Flooded forests / plantations are grown for making the
submerged lands equally good or better productive than existing
forests / agriculture lands. Water storage barrage projects are also
substantially cheap when submerged land cost is eliminated. Still 70%
of agriculture lands depend on vagaries of monsoon rains for a crop in
a year. India has nearly 2000 billion cubic meters (BCM) of river
water resources out of which only 25% is presently used for
agriculture, industry and domestic needs. We need to submerge or
create flooded forest of nearly 150,000 square km area (5% of total)
to harness the water resources’ fully to achieve 100% irrigation
facility with three crops in a year without effected by monsoon
vagaries any more. The main constraint till now is the submergence of
land whether it is agriculture or forest lands.
Multipurpose water storage barrages (irrigation, hydropower,
fisheries, tourism, etc) can be constructed with participation of
local farmers by growing flooded forests. The legal title of submerged
land remains with the owner / farmer. Government/project company/
cooperative will pay yearly rental /lease for storing water on the
farm land. Government will also develop / finance flooded forest
plantations. The original owner of the land can enjoy the produce of
flooded forest trees and fisheries on his land. Farmers can also
become share holders by transferring land title to the project company/
cooperative. Farmers / land owners can sell the flooded forests
whenever they wish at prevailing market rates.
There is no doubt that it would not take more than a decade to turn
India drought free, floods free and with evergreen landscape if our
planners and law makers are serious. It would also help the industries
and cities to source cheap and abundant water from the flooded forest
reservoirs. Greener and moisture rich landscape of India will also
appreciably dampen the dry and hot summer climate similar to that of
Kerala state. Full utilization of water resources with the help of
flooded forests will transform India in to major exporter of
agriculture, forest & aquaculture produce after meeting its needs
fully.
Regards,
Teluguseva
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "N. Sasidhar" <n.shasid...@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 23 2009, 10:48 pm
Subject: Fresh water flooded forests
To: Irrigation, Power and Energy Resources Development in India.
Dear All,
Please convey your valuble comments on this article "Fresh water
flooded forests" which is posted in 'Files'
regards,
N. Sasidhar
Click onhttp://groups.google.com/group/irrigation-power-energy/web/n-sasidhar
- or copy & paste it into your browser's address bar if that doesn't
work.