Vivek Kumar Govila

Success Story under component titled "River Bank Protection Wall" and "Land Reclaimed" in Gram Panchayat and Revenue Village VyasNahari Revenue Village (RV) and Gram Panchayat (GP) named VyasNahari comes in Kalsi Block of Dehradun District. Area of RV VyasNahari is 150.181 ha and population of GP VyasNahari is 3264 (as per PRA conducted under GRAMYA II). Population of this village mainly comprises of SC and STs. This GP is located at a height of 510 m from sea level and was established is 1968. During natural disaster of 2013, about 9 ha cultivable land became uncultivable as sand and gravel filled the cultivable land. With the advent of GRAMYA II during early 2015, about Rs. 3.68 lakhs were spent for RIVER BANK PROTECTION WALL (under SOIL CONSERVATION head). About 6 ha land has been conserved as part of this initiative. On the request of the villagers keeping in the mind the safety of the villagers and importance of cultivable land, pucca wall or bounded wall or "GABIAN SPUR" was built along the RIVER BANK PROTECTION WALL for which additional Rs. 49837 was given under the project. On the request of the villagers along the protection wall "GABIAN SPUR" were built with the prime objective to slowly move the flow of the river water away from the village and cultivable land. Photo of "GABIAN SPUR" built along the RIVER BANK PROTECTION WALL in VyasNahari is given below: Due to the assistance (financial and technical guidance) received under the project by the villagers, about 4 ha land has already been reclaimed as is evident from the picture given below. According to the villagers and project officials, the crop grown (paddy or dhaan) on the reclaimed land is of good quality. Further away from the reclaimed land (as shown above) another 1 ha (in two-three patches) land is being treated to be reclaimed for agriculture purposes. In this 1 ha of land about 400 plants of pomegranate were planted. According to the villagers and project officials, the growth of pomegranate plants is as per expectation (survival rate is approximately 75 per cent). In one year's time, the situation will be more clear whether the efforts to reclaim the land have been successful or not. As is evident from the picture given below the villagers have built wall around this land and wired it too. Convergence too is evident in the project. The approach road to this land (land to be reclaimed) although kutcha has been built by PWD. This PWD road also divides the land being reclaimed and the barren land (filled with sand and gravel). The photo given below shows the kutcha road and the barren land. The project officials have even identified and marked about 4 ha of more barren land for reclaiming. Work on reclaiming this will start once pomegranate plantation on 1 ha of land is successful. Given below is photo of the barren land identified for reclaiming (about 4 ha).