GANGA 60th Issue | Page 9

Newsletter No. 60;
IRBMS
roots, and nurturing age-old practices. It is story and ultimately the lands got new life after
of c ollective community efforts which helped rejuvenation.
villagers to overcome the vagaries of nature, and All those in possession of any part of pasture land
rejuvenate restore would part with the same for community. With
prosperity, says Dr. Anupam Mishra in his booklet ample pasture to graze on, the cattle in Lapodia
outlining a base study of Lapodia village. started yielding huge quantities of milk. The
During those years of migration in Lapodia nearly success of Lapodia has inspired 84 villages in the
all able-bodied men including a prosperous land vicinity to repeat the work done and rejuvenate the
owning Thakur family migrated. One person Shri pasture lands and ponds to overcome the vagaries
Laxman of drought and extreme weather.
pastures
Singh,
and
from
farms
a
to
once-prosperous
landowning Thakur family, fought against the all The Lapodia turnaround, though would never have
odds. He was compelled to move out of the barren been possible without the kind of community work
wasteland of Lapodia for better opportunities that was done, it also teaches us that fighting an
elsewhere. In 1988 Laxman Singh joined the Tarun outside enemy is easy, but fighting your own
Bharat Sangh in Alwar. This had far-reaching neighbors, relatives and close companion is no
consequences for him and his village . Sri Singh easy task. It means overcoming the devils within
came back to his village and decided to lead from us, and the worst in ourselves. ( Source; Lapodia –
front once again as a true leader. He picked up his Ekti
shovel, toiled in the sun to restore one of the two Mishra’s booklet by Nirupama Adhikary.)
Drishtanto–Bengali
Translation
of
Anupam
major tanks that served the village long back.
Twenty others joined with him. The struggle
continued
with
more
people
joining
the
movement. In the next monsoon itself, the tank
was full with water. The following year irrigation
was provided for 100 bighas of land. World Bank
was working in the vicinity of Lapodia. They were
brought to restore the pasture lands. Tractors were
Editor- Sujit Choudhury, Published by Girija Sankar
Chattopadhay, IRBMS, assisted by C S Das Bairagi &
Nilshikha Das (© Integrated River Basin Management
Society)
brought in, lands were tilted, seeds were scattered
9
Integrated River Basin Management Society