Hiware Bazar, a village in Maharashtra's drought-prone Ahmednagar district, was sliding into an abyss after degrading its environment. But in less than a decade it turned itself around into one of the most prosperous villages of the country. There was no magic wand, just common sense. It used funds from government schemes, to regenerate its natural resources--forests, watershed and soil--led by a strong village body. It had a role model in the district--Ralegan Siddhi, the village Anna Hazare turned around. Now Hiware Bazar is in turn an exemplar for the whole of Ahmednagar district, where others have used the same scheme to conserve and prosper. NEHA SAKHUJA travelled the district and came back with an inspirational story.

The major problem faced by the foodgrain production system of India is the post harvest losses. There are many sources of leakage between production and consumption of foodgrains that not only include wastage of grains during various post-harvest operations but also at the stage of harvesting.

Most of the rural development models considered natural resource management as the means for rural transformation. The present paper reveals the impact of one such rural development models named "Adarsh Gaon Yojana" of Government of Maharashtra, which is based on natural resource management and watershed management.

The clash of two rural relief titans in Ahmednagar

Rajaram Anand Rao Bhabkar is a man of few worldly possessions. A retired school master he lives in the Gundegaon village of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra. But Bhabkar Guruji, as he is popularly