THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, June 6: Palamu Tiger Reserve observed World Environment Day on June 5 with newer and pragmatic approaches to rainwater, soil conservation and seed collection.
It did one thing more. It has roped in faceless people of the areas who are the ‘thumb rule engineers’ in their way.
First is rain. Surface water management is a high-priority thing here in PTR which reels under water crisis every summer.
Locals are real water engineers
Deputy Director, north division of PTR, P K Jena said, “I have no reason to contact any water engineer when I have around me scores of locals who know at their fingertips as to where the catchment areas are and where flow the water streams.”
“With the help of the locals and our eco-development committees, we will revive the water streams that have over the years outlived or are in a state of disrepair. We will refresh them. We will again make them the hangar to rainwater,” he added.
Jena said, “Let no rainwater goes waste. It is too good if it percolates down but its runoff is sad. Our Jan Bhageedari initiative will ensure that rainwater or surface water is saved with local engineering.”
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There is no point in constructing bigger and bigger water harvesting structures. There may be more and more of the smaller water booths here in the PTR.
Health of soil is important
Jena said surface water management is linked to soil conservation. “The health of the soil is as important as that of the rainwater,” he added.
Jan Bhageedari is to look after the status of the soil so that it does not slip into any near desertification. It has to be stopped. Good soil is a precursor to good habitat for wildlife.
After surface water management and soil conservation, it’s seeds that are vital to any jungle to survive.
Jena said it’s very common to talk about species of birds and animals etc getting threatened or endangered or on the verge of extinction but one forgets at the same time that crass marketing has led to the disappearance of the traditional seeds as farmers are tempted to high priced seeds when their traditional knowledge of seeds can help them to have a sound stock of seeds.
A seed is like a term deposit for farmers
A seed is like a term deposit for the farmers and the PTR is striving to promote and augment the collection of seeds amongst the farmers for its barter with farmers.
Thus, PTR has launched a connection between the environment and humans without making any hyperbolic rhetoric. And the credit for it goes to Jena who is gradually becoming a household name in the villages contiguous to the tiger reserve Palamu.
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