Watershed management a success story in Anantapur after three decades
First hand impressions of successful watershed management Chronically drought hit Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh has quite literally seen a watershed change from 'drought struck dry arid landscapes' into a lush green sandscape today three decades after Anantapur was declared as being in the " Process of Desertification in 1994 ". The debilitating nature of repeated droughts caused famine because of crop loss caused by missing monsoons. "According to Government records 19 years in the new millennium of 21 years have been drought hit" says Dr. Malla Reddy director of Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre in Anantapur who also serves as Member of the Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Mission. Climate Change and soil erosion were factors too. With ground water depleting to 900 metres below the ground in some places, thanks to unsustainable human development, local hydrology and topography, sand dunes and cactii marked the ignominious declaration of the district as &q