Geographically, Ralegan is surrounded by small hillocks on the north-east and on the souther sides. The slopes of these hills on thc eastern side give rise to the main run-off water stream during the rainy season. The geographical area (982 ha.) of Ralegan can be roughly divided into four watershed zones. Since the land is undulating most ot the landholdings are small.

The village is located in a drought prone (rain-shadow) zone with erratic rainfall between 200 mm and 850 mm per year. According to the 1971 census only 55 acres of land were irrigated. During that period most of the rainwater was wasted as run-off also taking the valuable top soil with it and rendering the cultivable lands poorer in productivity.

The older generation of Ralegan does recollect existence of a lot of green hushy vegetation on the hill slopes. By the seventies however, all ol it had disappeared and there were no soil conservation measures undertaken. The villagers used to construct small mud bandharas across the nullahs to divert the water to irrigate their fields. But there was no water-harvesting effort as such. Most of the wells used to be dry by the month of December or January. Some of the wells however did though barely, satisty the requirements of drinking water.

In the year 1972 like most parts of Maharashtra, Ralegan experienced the worst drought in living memory, when almost every able bodied person in the village worked on relief works.  It was during this year that the Tata Relief Committee (TRC) also started relief work in 6 villages of Parner Taluka, including Ralegan. The work was later extended to include five more villages. In 1972 the TRC constructed a community well in the village and also started constructing check-dams with assistance from the Catholic Relief Society under its "Food for Work" program. In all 11 checkdams were constructed in the village under this program.

In 1975 a percolation tank was sanctioned by the government in the eastern watershed area with a storage capacity of 114.2 lakh cubic feet of water. Construction of tank did create over 1 lakh mandays of work over a period of one and a half years. However the basic objective of water harvesting was not achieved since all the accumulated water used to rapidly seep away through the previous base of the bund (embankment wall).

It was in 1975 that Anna Hazare started his work in the village. Realizing the importance of water harvesting he pleaded with the district authorities about the need to undertake repairs of the percolation tank built at a cost of Rs. 4.35 lakh. After a lot of effort the Zilla Parishad agreed and in 1983-84 the massive repair work of providing impervious foundation to the tank was completed costing another Rs. 3.9 lakhs. The villagers could see the results immediately as the seven wells in the downstream got charged giving enough water even during the summer.

Under Anna Hazare's leadership the people of Ralegan had started participating in the implementation of every village level development program through Shramadaan. Anna himself, and his Tarun Mandal volunteers supervised every program to ensure that quality of work and construction standards were maintained so that maximum possible benefits were achieved with minimum wastage. Seeing this enthusiasm of the people of Ralegan, Shri Anil Lakhina, the then Collector of Ahmednagar district announced COWDEP (Comprehensive Wasteland Development Program) for Ralegan and the Agriculture Department also selected Ralegan for Krishi Pandhari (Farm training and visits) scheme as a corollary of the COWDEP. Soil Conservation and the Social Forestry Departments also joined in to strengthen the soil conservation and watershed development efforts.

The strategy adopted was of checking the run-off water by contour bunding, constructing check-dams so as to hold the water within the watershed area. Land shaping and land grading were strengthened by massive tree plantation and pasture development program. About 3,00,000 trees were planted by 1986, covering an area of about 102hectares to provide fodder and meet the fuel requirements of the village.

Having planted trees on the roadside, on bunds of check-dams, on boundaries of individual fields, on community lands and wastelands in the village, the tree plantation has now extended to the barren hills which surround Ralegan village. This massive drive of tree plantation has earned Anna Hazare the national award of Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra.

Ralegan has successfully experimented with the idea of "social fencing" for protection of trees. Having understood the critical importance of trees for getting out of the cycle of environmental degrdation and drought the village people adopted a ban on open grazing of cattle. A couple of households resisted and flouted the ban. Anna Hazare along with some members of the Tarun Mandal  commenced a 'fast' and as a result even these deviant families submitted to the collective will of the people.

Raising of nurseries has been taken up in a decentralized manner taking advantage of government schemes wherever possible. These water conservation and environmental regeneration programs have made Ralegan Siddhi an oasis in the drought prone taluka of Parner. But the people of Ralegan are not insensitive to the existing disparities.

Utilization of harvested water

Anna Hazare often says that it is not the water in fields that brings true development, rather it is water in the eyes (ie. compassion for the fellow beings) that brings real development. Therefore the emphasis was on distribution of benefits especially in such a way that the poorest are chosen as the first beneficiaries. Water resources created by community effort were therefore shared by the people through water supply co-operatives. Five such societies have been formed to extend the benefits of irrigation to the maximum number ol people. According to a rough count by the Gram Sevak in 1988 there were 40 new wells dug to reap the benefits of water harvesting. The total area irrigated by well water has gone up to 700 acres. Bv 1991 there were 87 private and 7 community wells in Ralegan.

To supplement this effort a lift irrigation scheme was taken up in I986 under which water from the nearby Kukdi Canal was lifted to bring another 500 acres under irrigation benefiting 103 farmers. For all these irrigation schemes the labour component was provided by the beneficiaries in the form of Shramadaan and the Bank of Maharashtra extended a helping hand by providing loans. Wherever possible the benefit of subsidy under various Government schemes was also taken.

Drinking Water

Prior to thc watershed development program there were only two wells which used to sustain the village during the
summer months. People had to walk 2-3 Kms to fetch water. Even in the worst drought however, as one well in the village never dried up, drinking water was never supplied to the village by tankers.

By 1986 there were eight bore wells installed in the village. A motor pump on one of these bore wells supplies piped
water to different clusters of houses by rotation. Anothcr motor on a bore well near Padmavati temple supplies piped water to the boys' hostel. No one has to walk a long distance anymore for water and there is no crowding for drinking water.

Water Management

Ralegan has also experimented with drip and bi-valve irrigation in a big way. Papaya, lemon and chillies have been
planted on a plot of 80 acres entirely irrigated by the drip irrigation system. People who have dug private wells in their fields have been persuaded not to raise water-intensive cash crops like sugarcane. However groundnut and onion have been allowed to some extent. When the villages around Ralegan were facing acute shortage of fodder, the people of Ralegan demonstrated a unique sense of social commitment by producing more fodder instead of taking cash crops and supplying it to neighhouring villages at prices lower than the market rates.

Within Ralegan all those families who have benefited from extension of irrigation contribute 25% of their increased incomes to other community based projects so that the benefits are shared. The Ralegan people have also monetarily contributed towards rehahilitation of those farmers who were divested of their lands for construction of the Kukdi canal as well as the dam which feeds the canal, once again demonstrating the human face of development.
 
 
 
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