 Hello everyone, welcome to NPTEL course on Rural Water Resources Management. This is week 10, lecture 4. In the past week, we looked at rural water resource infrastructures to manage water and store water using engineered solutions. We noticed that not everyone can afford engineered solutions. And it may have some impact on the ecosystem. Therefore, in this week, we are focusing on alternative engineered methods which are including natural resource management through nature-based solutions and decentralized or low construction resources. These infrastructure have been widely used across the world. And most importantly, they have been traditionally used. However, the recent decades, they are not being used much. And therefore, in this course, we are highlighting these different systems. In the last class, we looked at check dams, rainwater harvesting through rainwater gardens or rain gardens. We looked at sponge gardens and we looked at multiple other methods that are all purely nature-based solutions. There is little construction, but still it is less impact on the ecosystem. Let's continue our discussion on the same line. But before that, there is always land cleared from forest for agriculture. We need to understand what has these agricultural expansions done to forest. Because in today's lecture, we are going to see forest as an alternative nature-based solution for improving water resources. It is mandatory to understand that there is difference between forest and agricultural expansion or forest and agricultural differences. To quantify that, it is very important to look at what is a forest and how it has been cleared for a new cultural expansion. We all know what a forest is. Forest is a composition of good soil, good trees, especially native trees, and the harbour, wildlife, birds, insects, and all the other abiotic factors including rocks, water, etc. So even though we know so much benefits of forest, it has been unsustainably cleared for agriculture and settlements, which becomes part of the rural entity. So now in a rural area, which was originally a forest, if it was cleared and then converted to agricultural land, how are you going to minimize the impact on the ecosystem? Or how are you going to capture more water using different methods is the question. So we will go through some of these methods. After we see how the unsustainable agricultural expansion has been devastating the plants. Once forests are cleared, the soil quality is degraded rapidly because trees and plants improve the soil condition. They break down the soil materials. They also let water go in through infiltration through the root zone and percolation. And importantly, they provide the important biomass and take part in conversion of gaseous nutrients into soluble nutrients through the root zone activities. So there has been a lot of good soil quality because of forest because soil is not just the rock material which has degraded. It is with living organisms, nutrients and water. So all of these are removed from the soil when you remove the forest. Without good soil, the water retention is also reduced. There's not much water that the soil can hold if it is not healthy. If there's no biological activity in the soil, then the water retention is reduced. Then you have more floods. This is what you see on barren lands. Barren lands, the soil is not conducive for agriculture or anything to grow. So now when rainfall occurs on the barren soil, all the water goes off as runoff. If it has trees and plants, then water goes into the root zone and goes infiltrates. A lot of negative environmental impacts happen because of removing the forest. And all of this have been widely documented and studied. For example, this forest, you could see that the surrounding forest is very lush and green. The soil quality is good. But once you cut down the trees and or burn here, they could have burned the trees or done something to reduce the trees, cut it down. Then what happens is slowly the soil loses its tendency on the slopes. They tie it together. They don't have anything to bind them together like roots normally bind the soil together. So in that case, you are actually losing the soil, losing the trees and all the other plants that are supporting it. So by clearing this forest, you're also endangering the forest nearby. And when there's sudden rain, what happens is all the soil will be washed away because there's nothing to hold the soil. So you can be sure that removal of forest and conversion of them into agricultural land is not long-term sustainable. However, the damage has been done in most regions. Let's look at deforestation in Malawi and the impact. In Malawi, you could see 1990 to 2010, there has been considerable loss of forest. The forest is in green color and mostly the northern part and southern part you see a lot of forest. And all of them have been cleared or most of them have been cleared to support cropland. The cropland is in pink. You can see the water body size also shrinking every 10 years because of the loss of forest. And wherever there has been a good amount of agriculture, there has been some development of a village or city, we call it as a settlement. So urbanization can also lead. The major part is you see all these blue water bodies are lost. These blue water bodies are lost. And these major water bodies also shrink in size. Initially, you see an increase in the water. Why? Because forest take a lot of water. And when you cut them, suddenly what happens is all the groundwater which was going to the trees are not taking up anymore. So it comes to these water bodies. So initially five years, six years, you see a flush of water coming into the water bodies. But then after that, there is not much water that can go into the groundwater because you have cut down the trees. So thereby reducing the infiltration, reducing the net output into the rivers and streams and also no shades for the water body. So a lot of evaporation and water loss. So this has been documented as highly unsustainable. In the classic cases in Bangalore, you would see a lot of lakes have been converted, a lot of good trees have been cut, converted to cropland and cropland converted urban cities, etc. So in the rural setting, it is not a sustainable way to cut all the forest and then convert to cropland. There has been some balance. There needs to be some balance between a forest and agriculture coexisting together. And that is what we'll be seeing in this lecture. So we have understood that forests have been degraded, have been cut down unsustainably on the name of agriculture and rural development, but that cannot be sustainable. Sooner or later, the same forest that you cut and converted to agricultural land, the clearing of the forest would lead to the loss of the agricultural fertility also. All the land, all the sand that is under the forest, which have been cut, will surely lead high because the land is highly fertile because of the forest. Now, if you cut the forest and then put an agricultural land, the fertility will be gone quickly. So there should be a balance, a give and take, a win-win situation. Let's see what can be done. As I said, the water bodies have drastically decreased, especially in this area where the forest and other areas are, and mostly this area. Conservation of water and soil in degraded forests. Now we're going to start with a degraded forest in a rural setting and see what can be done to save them, save the forest or regenerate the forest and also bring back the water and soil conditions. First, let's look at the afforestation. What do you mean by afforestation? So we'll go through a lot of terms that are discussing about increasing the forest cover. Our goal is to increase the forest cover, increase the water conservation activity and soil conservation through the forest cover. So the first we will see is afforestation wherein conversion of barren and degraded land to forest. This happens in a land which has been barren without any crops growing and degraded land into forest. So you take a patch of land which has been not good for supporting plants and any type of life form. You have to do some activities on it till it or bring back water, bring back soil nutrients and then slowly, slowly down to the forest. This is called afforestation. Reforestation is the replantational trees in a deforested land. Suppose you have a forested land and you have cut it and then you convert it to agricultural land. Now, after you know the importance of the land, you would go back and do reforestation, which is replantational trees in the land where the forests have been cut. This is what tribals do mostly. Tribals don't own a lot of these forests. What they do is they'll go to a patch of land. They'll clear the trees for some small patch where they do agriculture. They grow the plants, crops to feed like rice, millet, whatever it is. And then after one or two years, they would move to another patch. They'll just leave and then go. Since it is inside a forest land and since the forest is still active, it will reforest itself. There is plants and animals. The birds will drop the seeds. Animals will drop the seeds. Then what happens is the forest which was cleared in that land would regrow again by itself because it is surrounded by forest and all these animals, plants, earthworms all help together. That is called reforestation. It can happen naturally but very slow. What we are asking here in the conservation world is you need to do it by yourself. Go to the land, make sure the land is proper, bring some water, initial stage, bring some shade and also high variety native seeds both require considerable management and periodic maintenance. As I said clearly, the tribus they don't do maintenance because the land is small and as I said the entire area is forest. Here since the entire area is now converted to agriculture or plants, it is necessary to maintain periodically. And for that maintenance, since it's expensive and people don't readily come together, it is required to have a community participation. Wherein all the people in the village will come together helping reforestation and afforestation activities. Remember the entire village would get affected because of floods, flash floods if your forest is removed because of low water content, because of low soil fertility. So it is important to bring all of them on board who are directly or indirectly impacted and ask them for community participation. In some villages, every house should have to send one person a day to maintain the forest, at least until the forest can take care of itself. But doing that also increases livelihood options. That is what we are seeing in some villages in India, like a model role model they are very aspirational, very inspiring. Where these community participation have created the forest and through the forest they have created some livelihood options. It is a win-win. The community gives time and the forest gives it back by giving options. Some of them are like the trees and the branches that are falling down naturally are taken up by these community people for firewood and other resources. The grazing of their livestock is available. Fruits and other essential things for food can be taken and then used considerably and considering the sustainability. In some livelihood options of herbal medicine, folk medicine, all that can be possible. Let's take an example how a community takes part in community management of forest. Here you could see the locals actually nosing the fire, which means forest fires can pick up by itself. A lot of factors relate to forest fire. And once the fire hits, all the trees are burnt and then the soil is exposed to sunlight. So there is erosion. So what these locals do is find locations where these kind of fire could start forest fire. Basically, a lot of dry leaves and a lot of places without shade and a lot of sunlight due to climate change. If it heats too much and the leaves are very, very brittle and dried, quickly they could catch fire. All it needs is a spark. So it's very important once it happens, they know how to put down the fire. There's something called prescribed burning where they would open up fire in some locations to cut down the fire. So all these are being done by some limited training and traditional knowledge by the locals in a community participation network. Then we go to a forest station. As I mentioned, a forest station, you create a forest from a barren land. Native forest and grasslands can aid in increasing the soil activity, especially infiltration and percolation for groundwater management. Especially the native, I put it in the big because a lot of people have started using invasive or quickly growing trees. For example, eucalyptus. Eucalyptus may be native for some regions, but for many regions it is not native. When you put those trees, you disturb the water quality, you disturb the water quantity. Same pine trees, they put it on the slope. The pine trees can turn the soil acidic. It can bring the soil acidity up and then all the soil becomes acid content. So it is very important to bring the local trees from the local knowledge. It turns aids for the moment and storage of soil and groundwater. Because the native forest can build the soil profile. Remember the soil is built by breaking up of the rock material, parent material, and the action of soil microbes, nutrients, organic matter, sunlight and water. So all these things mixed together to make the soil and organic matter is given by these forests. Community participation can help. Many rural communities are actively participating in a forest station. The previous I said is forest maintenance. Here, a lot of people are actively participating in the forest station efforts. The government can give free nursery, small saplings. How you use it to get across on a hill slope or a barren land is through community participation. Basically, every house in the village would collect these plants, go and plant them and maintain these plants for some years, two, three years. And then these plants will take care of themselves because they will become more mature. I'm going to talk about the very successful Japanese model, which has been practiced in many, many countries, including India on barren land or deforested land. Basically, how do you convert this land into a forest? It is called the Miyawaki's method. Very, very famous and many, many countries are taking up. Let's see how they start. You start by collecting seeds and seedlings just after germination. Germination is when the seed starts to have the small plant growing up. That is the active seed which has been germinated. So they take up the germination from a natural forest, not an artificial forest, not from your park or garden. You can go to a forest setting to make a forest. So you first take these germinated seeds, bring them to a greenhouse where you put them on a bed and let them grow. Because most of these saplings will never grow full height because already the trees are full. So they'll just grow and then die within the soil and then convert to organic matter. You bring them to these greenhouses, basically an isolated area with sunlight and water where it can grow. So you let it grow to two, three leaves budding. When it starts to budge, now you put it in the soil and then when it starts to three leaves coming, then you transplant it into a pot. Each plant takes one pot. Full shade. Here there is full shade, not much sunlight coming. Then you go to a 60% shade. You can see the shade is reduced and each of these plants are kept. You nurture it. Nurture it means basically giving water, some nutrients, natural nutrients that you can give. And then slowly after two to three months, you shift it to another location where the shade is only 30 to 40%. So what you're trying to do is slowly you're increasing the sunlight coming in. First it was no sunlight just your normal room temperatures and lights that can let the plants grow slowly and strongly. It's competing, it's competing and then growing and then 30 to 40, 60% shade. Then you shift it to 30, 40% shade and then you put them into a natural environment. In an existing forest, you take it to a forest and then you put these in the small pots. You put them under the trees, near the trees for one or two months. And then these seedlings, these small plants are taken and put in the barren land where you want to do the forest. Plant seedling into the plant site. Maintenance is necessary for one to three years. Necessary, it is very necessary. You cannot just plant and grow. You'll have to nurture it for three years. After that, nature will foster, no management is needed. So what you're trying to do is you're not just taking a seedling and then putting it in the land. You're taking it, letting it grow healthy initially by panthering it, by taking care of it and then you go and plant it in the forest. It's a long process, but a very sustainable process because after two, three years, you can come out happily and the forest will grow by itself. It has been very successful in many countries, including India. In fact, IIT Bombay also has one. So you should try it and see how this can work in the rural setting. What happens here is the afforestation is done to increase forest from a land where the forest was not available first, was a barren land, etc. Whereas reforestation, we're going to create a forest on a land which was originally a forest. You can call it reforestation or regeneration of forest. Let's see one by the NMS of Guru Foundation, which I've covered a lot using the lift irrigation schemes. They also indulge in reforestation because they understand that to get the water to the lift irrigation, to get the water to check down, you need to have a healthy forest. The forest is the one which actually helps in condensation bringing good water down to the earth and then converting it to groundwater and wastewater. So what do they do? Let's see. Replantation of trees in deforested land. See, this was initially a forest and then they slowly started to take those saplings which I showed you in some of the previous slides. This is not the Miyawaki. This is much, much before. So they just take saplings given by the government or their own small, small seedlings, etc. Native forest saplings and then they'll come and plant it and all of them take care of it. Need to understand the local hydroclimate and environmental setting in choosing a species. If you don't know the long-term hydroclimate and environmental setting, it is best to use the native tree types because the native tree types already was there. So you'll be happy to use it. Need to bring the forest as close as possible to initial conditions. Never redo it to the original condition because change has been done. When the forest was removed, the soil has changed. The soil depth has changed because some of the soil would have been eroded. There's no forest to hold the soil, soil would have been eroded. Look at here. All these erosions and etc. You can bring it back to original state but you can bring it as close as possible to sustainable level. And that is through good reforestation. Community participation is vital as I mentioned. Capability is the key. They hold the process when they understand water is important and for water good soil is important, good trees are important and they bring all of them together. There's also economic gains in doing a forest, not only water gains. Yes, water would increase your agricultural activity, your domestic drinking resources. But it also improves your life quality by giving good air. How can you put a price on good air? Now during COVID situations, people understand air is very important. Air quality is very important. But forests give you naturally. So this is where the life changes, health changes, water quality changes, soil quality changes by growing good trees. And all of this has been documented scientifically. So if we can engage the communities in managing the forest, they'll do a very good job in improving the soil condition, improving the water condition and improving the economic viability. I'll see you in the next class on with more different types of forestation for increasing the forest cover and we'll be wrapping up. Thank you.