Abstract:
The perspective analysis of land and water availability vis-à-vis their demand suggests the need of harvesting, conserving and managing water in its various forms for sustainable development. The role and importance of community participation in ensuring the sustainable development is now widely accepted. Participatory integrated watershed management is now becoming the new paradigm for natural resource conservation and management to tackle these problems ecologically, socially and economically on sustained basis. The paper presents an overview of the watershed management in relation to water resource conservation and management in general and with special reference to Western Ghats Region of India and demonstrates perspectives of watershed management in improving water resource availability locally through surface and ground water interventions. The results of various participatory Watershed Management (WSM) programmes strongly suggest their importance in water resource management and promoting natural resource conservation through people's participation. Watershed management ensures integrated management of rain water, in-situ soil moisture, surface water and ground water together with land and vegetation management. It is suggested that basinwise planning and management of water resources should integrate participatory WSM programmes for sustainable development.
