Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS)

Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill, 2024

A Bill that seeks to amend the existing law governing exploration and production of oil and gas as well as delink petroleum operations from mining operations was passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday (March 12, 2025). The Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill, 2024, is aimed at boosting investment …

Government sets up panel to review power projects on Ganga

The Prime Minister's Office has constituted an inter-ministerial committee headed by Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi to review existing and ongoing hydroelectric projects on Ganga and its tributaries. The committee has been tasked to submit its report in three months. The panel will recommend the flow that should be …

Endangered in Sariska

The death of a tiger last month, two and a half years after it was brought to Sariska, proves the National Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan is not safe for the big cat. The death also brought to light little action has been taken on the recommendations of the Tiger Task …

Endangered in Sariska

THE DEATH of a tiger last month, two and a half years after it was brought to Sariska, proves the National Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan is not safe for the big cat. The death also brought to light little action has been taken on the recommendations of the Tiger Task …

Endangered in Sariska

The death of a tiger last month, two and a half years after it was brought to Sariska, proves the National Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan is not safe for the big cat. The death also brought to light little action has been taken on the recommendations of the Tiger Task …

Decentralizing governance of natural resources in India: Lessons from the case study of Thanagazi Block, Alwar, Rajasthan, India

Numerous countries have undergone decentralisation reforms in the management of natural resources. However, the policies implemented are often not applied in ways compatible with the democratic potential with which decentralisation is conceived. The paper analyses the issue of decentralisation in resource management, in Thanagazi block, Alwar District, Rajasthan. In this …

Community driven approach for artificial recharge: TBS experience

In India, small water reservoirs in the desert area are a part of a complex inter-linking natural resource management system. Traditional methods of water harvesting were employed by the local communities led by TBS to rejuvenate a local river, recharge the ground water and re-green a village. In Alwar district, …

Let The Rivers Flow

Our journey of rural uplift started on October 2, 1985, when along with three others, I went to live in a village in Alwar, Rajasthan. I had quit my job as a national service volunteer at Jaipur. It was then that we realised that the real need of people was …

How johads bring life and prosperity to Rajasthan's arid lands

The smile on Chhoti Devi's face does not cease. The mother of eight is a picture of happiness and hope as she points to the mustard crops at Titliwala village in Alwar district, Rajasthan. Until a few years ago, she was never sure of a good harvest. The reason: there …

Yamuna in focus

Court ordered a review of threat to it the Delhi High Court refused to stay constructions on the Yamuna floodplains and riverbed on November 3 and ordered setting up an expert committee to evaluate the current and planned constructions for any adverse effects on the river and its ecology. The …

UVM-SVARAJ community based project for small height anicuts

Ubeshwar Vikas Mandal (UVM), an organisation of Bhil adivasis, has over the past two decades undertaken awareness raising, community organisation and protection and regeneration initiatives for pasturelands, forest areas and water bodies. The UVM-Svaraj project for small-height construction is the latest addition to these activities.

Watershed development programmes in India and institutional imperatives

India is endowed with annual average rainfall of nearly 1,200 mm but a very small proportion of it is managed effectively. The various estimates on potential for rainwater harvesting suggest vast opportunities for mitigating the shortages. However, the socio-administrative measures in vogue do not encourage participation by the beneficiaries. There …

Traditional water harvesting structure: Community behind 'community'

The work of Tarun Bharat Sangh in Rajasthan has received much attention. There is an urgent need though to question development challenges that go overboard in extolling the virtues of greenery without tracing the hands that own the land and harvest the fruits of public money.

Split wide open

in the wee hours of July 10, the johad (earthen check-dam) in Rajasthan's Lava-ka-Baas village, which had irrigated at least seven villages during two successive droughts, burst. The water that flowed fiercely through the embankment saw the villagers' hopes being washed away. They had constructed the structure in 2001 in …

Rain catcher

July 30, 2001, was an eventful day for Rajendra Singh of Tarun Bharat Sangh ( tbs ). As he was touring Sikar, Rajasthan, to do what he does best

Vindicated

For the villagers of Lava ka Baas in Alwar district of Rajasthan, the Ramon Magsaysay award for Rajendra Singh, secretary of the Alwar-based Tarun Bharat Sangh could not have come at a more opportune time. After their face off with the irrigation department, who questioned the safety and the legality …

Rainwater rights

It is an unnecessary controversy over ownership of rainwater. The johad (traditional check dam) of Lava ka Baas in Alwar district of Rajasthan has been in the eye of a storm and so has Kamla Beniwal, Rajasthan irrigation minister. Claiming rainwater to be government's property, she supported the demolition of …

Gopal s genius

Along with Tarun Bharat Sangh ( tbs) co-workers, Gopal Singh stood by the villagers during their vigil at the Lava ka Baas johad. Credited with having designed over 4,500 water harvesting structures, this johad has also been designed by him. To express solidarity, villagers from neighbouring villages had come to …

Chronology of a controversy

June 4, 2001: The Rajasthan irrigation department gives a notice to Tarun Bharat Sangh (

Flaws in the laws

Water laws in India are archaic and anti-people. Made to disempower rather than empower communities, these are used to terrorise the people rather than assist them. Secretary of tbs , Rajendra Singh received notices from the Rajasthan irrigation department stating that the johad constructed by the villagers of Lava ka …

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