On the lap of the barren Aravallis, around 650 villages faced an acute water shortage. The rainwater used to run off, taking away the fertile top soil. Hardly 10 per cent of the cultivable land was ploughed and the yield was discouragingly low. People migrated to nearby urban areas like Jaipur and Delhi for work. "When we started our water harvesting programme in the villages, not a single soul was there to talk. All of them migrated,' remembers Kanheya Lal of the Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), an environmental organisation.

"Once water is assured, the life around it prospers,' says Rajendra Singh, secretary of TBS. "The traditional knowledge of water harvesting was given a burial by the government, and villagers were never consulted.' The irrigation department had labelled it a "dark zone'. No new wells were allowed to be dug, while the existing ones were dry. The five rivers