Tracing the trajectory of watershed development in India using watershed guidelines: policy insights

Abstract

This study traces the development of watersheds in India based on the governing guidelines of the watershed programmes. We explore the changes and modifications in the watershed guidelines and categorize the developmental changes into six distinct yet interlinked phases. We observed that the watershed guidelines were fine-tuned with emerging challenges of land degradation, livelihood security, gender and social equity, climate change mitigation and adaptations. Recently, the focus of watersheds has shifted from production centric to income-centric by promoting enabling institutional settings. The experiences and learnings from India’s watershed programmes provide insights for other developing countries implementing such programmes.