WATER MANAGEMENT IN ARID AND SEMI ARID ZONE: TRADITIONAL WISDOM

Thar Desert covers the area of 44.6 million hectare, out of which 27.8 million hectares lie in India and the rest in Pakistan. The average annual rainfall is ranging from 500 in the east to 100 mm in the west. It is an ill water sandy tract of Rajasthan. As the rainfall is very erratic, the ancestors developed various wise and sustainable traditional ways to harvest the rain water. Most of the villagers in the desert tract have small ponds, covered pits called as kunds or simple excavation called as sar. They developed mixed cropping pattern in which human and animal population benefit from each other. Around 15th Century, the paliwal Brahimans community of the Jaisalmer district of the Rajasthan have been developed Khadin system of cultivation. The system is based on the principle of the harvesting the rain water on farm land and subsequent use of this water-saturated land for crop production. Khadin system has great similarity with the irrigation methods of the people of Iraq around 4500 B.C. This paper deals with the skillful traditional water management practices like Kund, sar, roof top rain water harvest, tanks and Khadins etc.