Gambegre village in West Garo Hills which is among 400 villages located in critically degraded landscapes of the State has chosen to reclaim their lands by accepting to rejuvenate under the Community-Led Landscape Management Project (CLLMP) in 2019.
Two years have passed and now the communities in the village have now enhanced productivity, revived natural resources, and more significantly, opportunities for improved livelihoods.
Sharing the journey of Gambegre with Highland Post, Meghalaya Basin Management Agency said that the project to transform the village was funded by the World Bank whereby people of the village have initiated multiple NRM-first efforts to reclaim their lands and rejuvenate the deteriorating landscapes.
“As CLLMP is a community-driven development project, the planning and implementation processes were led by the communities. The project only facilitated support with the implementation. Interventions comprise a community nursery, a PCC water conservation unit dam, a spring chamber, trenches, a dugout pit, 18-day hot composting methods, and support with a tree plantation drive at a depleted natural reserve,” the agency said.
Stating that a survey by the North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC) in 2012, revealed that as many as 1900 villages in Meghalaya had worryingly depleting natural resources, marred in equal parts by climate change and anthropogenic activities the agency said, “Given that so many are reliant on these resources for sustaining varied forms of agriculture-based livelihoods, the data was an ominous warning that the need for sustainable interventions was immediate.”
Therefore, two years back the communities there banked on reviving their natural resources to improve livelihoods.
The 12-bed Songjatchi community nursery was raised which is now a home to different local saplings including the endangered varieties. Jackfruits, mangoes, gasampe, che’eng, agol, raju, chandan, bolgisim, chambu, bolkasin, neem, ajari, soksinareng, bolbret and sakap are found there.
Some of the matured saplings are transplanted to the catchment area and the community has been able to sell about 350 saplings to date.
Another is the PCC water conservation unit dam. The spring chamber have helped with secured access to water for both domestic and irrigation purposes, directly benefiting 10 and 9 households respectively. The spring chamber, in particular, has also addressed the issues associated with drudgery, sanitation, and agricultural health.
Two trenches covering three acres of hill area were built in July 2020, one in Jenggrim (C) and another in Rami Chiga, which have led to increased water levels in the streams. The soil removed during the rainy seasons is used to create a berm just downhill from the trench and is useful in slowing surface water run-off and soil erosion from sloping land and re-vegetating the degraded lands.
The water from the dugout pit at Jenggim Bipek is for the community nursery during the dry seasons and for cleaning and bathing, benefiting 35 families.
CLLMP is also promoting the Berkeley hot composting method for achieving fast and efficient production of compost for various plantation activities and also as a source of revenue to sustain various activities undertaken. Compost that is currently priced at Rs. 20 per kg is sold to Tura and other markets.
Furthermore, the community planted different species of tree saplings in Songgitcham Reserve like the Te.brong, the Te.gatchu, and the Gasampe species. The initiative was aimed at recovering lost forest cover and building a sheltered home for animals and birds.
In the pipeline are dugout pits in Rangsan Amuchakram, Wa.sik, and Ronggrim Bipek to raise the underground water levels and improve the springs which are critical sources of water for them.
