We may be teetering on the brink of doom, but we’re starting to step back onto firm ground. That is what data scientist Hannah Wright tells us in her book “Not the End of the World”. Her research in global data shows there is hope—she says, “Over the last 10 years or so, according to the environmental data, there have been signs for cautious optimism. It’s not inevitable that we get there, but I think there’s an opportunity for us to do so … The feeling of “it's too late” just leads to inaction and paralysis.”
Although the scale of the problems, mostly arising from climate change, seems overwhelming, nature conservation works. Interventions designed within the local social and environmental context, led by communities, have been proven to be low-cost, sustainable nature-based solutions.
In the Indian context, smallholding farmers in many settings have tackled their environmental problems with heartening levels of success, with clear, verifiable results in drought resilience, water management, restoration of degraded land and push-back on desertification. They show the success of public–private partnerships where communities, organisations, and government all buy in, contribute and collaborate. Their actions are effective, scalable models for tackling the impacts of climate change in regions most hit by extreme heat, erratic weather patterns, land degradation and desertification.
In the Indian context, smallholding farmers in many settings have tackled their environmental problems with heartening levels of success, with clear, verifiable results in drought resilience, water management, restoration of degraded land and push-back on desertification.
Water is the lifeblood of survival. In the severely drought-prone Jalna district in Maharashtra, 330 villages that needed 90,000 tankers of water a year now need none. Individuals, organisations, and government partnered to rejuvenate water sources and desilt old water bodies; 427 km of nullahs (water courses) have been opened, 19 ponds brought back to life, and a total of 79,7443 cubic metres of silt removed in the last six to seven years. Sparkling ponds and recharged groundwater have transformed lives, providing water for homes and agriculture. Girls who had to carry water miles now go to school; farmers fertilise their fields with the rich excavated silt and produce crops carefully watered from the reserves they created; some agroindustry has moved in, providing employment. Labour migration and farmer suicides are down, and the once-brown, arid land is now green and fertile.
