From the Indian Blue Community Vaidic Srijan and its Research Head Madhukar Swayambhu:
Ghost Villages of India: The Ground Reality of Climate Change in Grassroots
“Ghost Villages of India: The Ground Reality of Climate Change in Grassroots”, documents how water scarcity, drying natural springs, erratic rainfall and the collapse of groundwater tables are emptying out villages across Bharat, and proposes a viable, holistic and sustainable way to bring them back. In brief:
- The problem: It profiles five ghost or near-ghost villages: Baluni, Bhel Dunga and Saina (Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand), Gattumeedapalle (Annamayya, Andhra Pradesh) and Hatkarwadi (Beed, Maharashtra).
- Existing policy responses: It reviews schemes such as Springshed Management, Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, solar agriculture feeders, aromatic-crop subsidies and the Jal Jeevan Mission, and points out that many of these postpone the problem instead of solving them sustainably.
- The solution: None of these villages has turned into a desert, as nature has reclaimed them everywhere, which means water is present but not enough for human use. The booklet therefore proposes a viable, holistic and sustainable NbS & EbA technology solution.
- How it can be done: It presents Nature-based Solutions from Vaidic Srijan (Cownomics®, Ecolining®, EcoDredging®, EcoDrainR® and MAGICC®), drawn from 80+ live and completed projects across Bharat and evaluated against the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
