In Rajasthan’s Chambal, wives of ex-dacoits lead revival of water sources and hope

CHAMBAL, May 25: Until about 15 years ago, Sampatti Devi and many women like her in Rajasthan’s Karauli district lived in constant fear, dreading the day their husbands might not return home.
Repeated droughts, driven in part by declining rainfall linked to climate change, had turned their lands barren. Water sources dried up, crippling agriculture and animal husbandry, the lifeblood of their livelihood.
With no other way to survive, many men were forced into dacoity, hiding in jungles and risking their lives every day to evade police. Karauli’s average annual rainfall dropped from 722.1 mm (1951-2000) to 563.94 mm (2001-2011), according to government data.
But in the 2010s, something remarkable happened. The women, weary of fear and despair, resolved to reclaim their lives. They convinced their husbands to come out of the jungles and give up arms.
Together, they began reviving old, dried-up ponds and constructing new pokhars (water bodies) with the help of Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), an Alwar-based NGO dedicated to water conservation since 1975.
“I would have been dead by now. She convinced me to come back and start farming again,” recalled Jagdish, Sampatti Devi’s husband, now 58, who surrendered his weapons and chose peace.
Pooling every penny earned over the years by selling milk, they built a pokhar at the base of a hill near their village, Alampur, in 2015-16.
When the rains came, the ‘pokhar’ was filled and for the first time in years, their family had water, enough to sustain them for a longer period.
“Now, we grow mustard, wheat, pearl millet and vegetables,” says Sampatti Devi, sitting proudly on the pokhar’s embankment. She even rents it out for water chestnut cultivation, earning about Rs 1 lakh each season.
Over the years, TBS and the local community have together built 16 such pokhars in the forest surrounding the village and around 500 across the entire district, each capturing runoff from the slopes, preventing droughts and floods.
Karauli, once among Rajasthan’s worst-hit dacoit areas, witnessed a transformation.
Karauli district is part of the Chambal region, which extends across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. It has historically been notorious for dacoity due to its rugged terrain, ravines and forests that provided hideouts for dacoits.
“With community-led conservation efforts, stability is returning,” said Karauli Superintendent of Police Brijesh Jyoti Upadhyay.
He says rainfall in the region is erratic and leads to periods of both water scarcity and intense short-term downpours.
“Karauli faces droughts during dry times and flash floods when it rains heavily, like last year, when the monsoon brought over 1,900 mm of rain.”
Sumit Dookia, an associate professor at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and a native of Rajasthan, said the rocky terrain makes water run off quickly and stops much of it from soaking into the ground.
“With all this going on, smart water management is really important.”
The wave of conservation in Karauli has transformed the Serni, once a seasonal river, into a perennial one. Just a decade ago, the river would run dry after Diwali, leaving people desperate for water.
“Now, the river holds water even at the peak of summer, thanks to around 150 water harvesting structures constructed along its entire length and breadth. The groundwater level has risen to just 5 to 10 feet below the surface,” said Ranveer Singh from TBS.
Forty years ago, he said, the river flowed all year round, but overuse and climate change had left it dry. With no options left, some men migrated to cities in search of work while others turned to mining or dacoity.
“Illegal mining exposed them to lethal silica dust, causing silicosis, a painful and incurable lung disease. Many did not live past 40,” said Rajendra Singh, the Magsaysay Award and Stockholm Water Prize-winning water conservationist who leads TBS.
A 2013 study by the National Institute of Miners’ Health (now part of ICMR-NIOH) found that 74 per cent of surveyed sandstone workers in Karauli suffered from silicosis.
Water scarcity even disrupted marriage decisions. Families of prospective brides avoided sending daughters to this parched land while poverty forced many Karauli parents to marry off their daughters early, Rajendra Singh said. (PTI)