Mountains have been considered as the planet’s water towers, by receiving much of its
precipitation. Some natural factors like steep
slopes, barren land, lack of soils, and so on are
responsible for rapid flow of waters in hills. But
the vegetative blanket of the forests serves as the
natural harvester and keeper of the raining
downpour. In early 1990, Doodhatoli Lok Vikas
Sansthan (DLVS), community participation
groups had started to make small intervention to
sustain and conserve the ample water reserve of
the mountains (Bandooni 1999). This time due to
deforestation the mountain Gad and Gadhera
(small rivers and drain etc.), which in earlier
times had sustained its flow throughout the year,
had begun to run dry during the summer months.
It required extra input of water to run its full
course all the year round. To solve this problem,
Plate 12.1 Water harvesting practices, Pauri Tehsil, Garhwal Himalaya. Source Primary Survey, 2015
Plate 12.2 Water supply, distribution and management, Dhansali, 2015. Source Primary Survey, 2015
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