GANGA 65th Issue | Page 5

Newsletter No. 65; innumerable cattle sheds that are littered across IRBMS severe deforestation and the region. There are long-standing issues over d) Shortage of livelihood opportunities high levels of heavy/trace metals and salinity as resulting migrations of people from the well. However, over 15% of households in the NCT villages. still rely on hand pumps that draw directly from IRBMS has supported to build a watershed the highly-polluted groundwater. development programs in these two villages to IRBMS is working with NGOS for Watershed Development in Jharkhand: make sure the optimum utilization of water for the sake of further livelihood development. IRBMS has got the opportunity to work in two IRBMS is working with JVP (Jharkhand Vikash watersheds one in Nipania of Bansloi River Parishad), Catchment area in Pakur District the second is in (Mohammed Bazaar Backward Class Development Hirapur of Dwarka River Catchment area in Society), Saithiya in Hirapur. Both the program has Dumka District, both are in Jharkhand. Both the been supported by AID (Association for Indias watershed receive around average 1200mm of Development) India. annual rainfall but Pakur high ridges Nipania and MBBCDS both comes under draught RIVERS OF INDIA stricken regions. Both the areas have topography with in and valleys bounded Brahmaputra River by mountains and rivers. The hard rocky terrain Tributaries of River Brahmaputra makes most of the water to flow speedily without Part-6 any storage and underground recharge. The areas A faces drought due to lack of water and soil tributaries this episode we are trying to cover few conservation measures coupled with deforestation. more in continuation of earlier episodes; These watersheds face following problems; Kameng River: large river like Brahmaputra has many The Kameng River in Arunachal Pradesh and Jia a) The Acute shortage of water for human consumption as well as for agriculture, b) Soil erosion resulting lowering fertility of the agricultural land. Bhareli in Assam in the eastern Himalayan Mountains originates in Tawang district from the glacial lake below snow-capped Gori-Chen Mountain, at a height of 6300 m. on the India- c) Lowering rainfall over the years due to Tibet border in South Tibet. It flows through 5 Integrated River Basin Management Society