AGRAR Case Study. Kolwan valley site, Pune district, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

This report is the final output describing results of the research conducted under the DFID funded AGRAR project in one of the three detailed case study sites, i.e. at the Kolwan valley site in Pune district of Maharashtra state in India. Research activities at the site began in mid-2003, although work, in the form of collecting background information, selecting areas for detailed surveys and setting up some of the research activities actually began in late 2002. The detailed background to the project was provided in the form of an ‘inception report’ (Kulkarni et al, 2003).

The AGRAR research in Kolwan valley was undertaken by Advanced Center for Water Resources Development and Management (ACWADAM), a Pune based research NGO, in collaboration with GOMUKH, again based in Pune but implementing watershed development projects in and around Pune. The research essentially focused on studying artificial recharge to augment the groundwater resources through watershed development. It included the study of small check dams constructed across streams to create water impoundments, from which infiltration occurs over a period of time and which, in turn, is supposed to result in recharge to underlying aquifers. The study, therefore, involved meteorology, hydrology, hydrogeology, social and economic aspects of groundwater resources in Kolwan valley. An important criterion of the study was to understand if and how artificial recharge impacts on already changing livelihoods in such areas, where watershed development is being conducted progressively on a large scale, encompassing villages within a small river basin, called the Walki river basin (popularly known as the Kolwan valley).

Citation

Himanshu Kulkarni; Badarayani, U.; Vinit Phadnis; Robb, R. AGRAR Case Study. Kolwan valley site, Pune district, Maharashtra, India. (2005)

AGRAR Case Study. Kolwan valley site, Pune district, Maharashtra, India

Published 1 January 2005