TANKS IN EASTERN INDIA : A STUDY IN EXPLORATION NIRANJAN PANT R.K. VERMA IWMI-Tata Policy Research Program Hyderabad and Centre for Development Studies Lucknow OCTOBER 2010 This Study was supported under the IWMI Tata Water Policy Research Program (ITP) - 2004-2006 July 2010 © International Water Management Institute 2010 IWMI - Tata Water Policy Research Program 401/5, C/o ICRISAT, Patancheru 502 324 Andhra Pradesh http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/iwmi-tata/default.aspx Disclaimer Views expressed in this book are those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the financial sponsors of this book. Citation Pant, N.; Verma, R. K. 2010. Tanks in Eastern India: a study in exploration. Hyderabad, India: International Water Management Institute, IWMI-TATA Water Policy Research Program; Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India: Centre for Development Studies. 232p. doi:10.5337/2010.228 Keywords Tanks / tank irrigation / fisheries / surveys / irrigated sites / ethnic groups / case studies / water market / colonialism / policy / Bihar / Jharkhand / West Bengal / Orissa / India ISBN No. 978-92-9090-731-2 Printed in Hyderabad, India Design, Typeset & Printed by Dhruti Design, Secunderabad II About the authors Niranjan Pant is Director, Centre for Development Studies, Lucknow since 1988. He has been doing research in the field of irrigation management since 1975. Initially he was associated with two research institutes, A. N.Sinha, Patna and Giri Institute, Lucknow. In addition, he has worked as a consultant/advisor to National and International organizations such as Ford Foundation, USAID, Planning Commission of India and TAHAL Consultants and the World Bank, Danish, Dutch, SIDA, and NORAD missions. In the course of research work he has availed visiting fellowships/research collaboration with Harvard University, U.S.A., JSPS and IDE, Japan and WAU, the Netherlands. He has had several associations with IWMI since 1980. Ravindra Kumar Verma (b. 1956), Ph D. has been engaged in teaching and research for over two and half decades. At present he is teaching at P G Department of Political Science, R N College, Hajipur (Vaishali). He has participated in various national and international refresher courses including one conducted in association with ISS, The Hague, Netherlands. Verma has also been on the expert panel of government bodies. He has contributed a great deal to the fields of Indian politics, rural development and irrigation management in shape of five books and nearly 75 research papers in journals like EPW, IJPS, IJPA, JJDMS, JSES, Mainstream etc. One of his books has been awarded by the Government of India. He has long association with Niranjan Pant, including in the research institutions at Patna and Lucknow. III About the Book Despite the pivotal role played by tanks in the eastern region of India over centuries, it is an under-researched area barring studies of ahar pyne systems of Bihar. The problem arises mainly because of lack of appreciation of the role of tanks in east India on the part of researchers, particularly the foreign scholars, who pioneered research on tank irrigation in the late 1970s in India and held the view that tanks were concentrated in south and central India and ignored the tanks in the eastern region. This dominance of south Indian studies in tanks found an echo in the pattern of funding for further research and rehabilitation of the tank based systems in that region. Part of the neglect of the tanks in the eastern region is on account of absence of any documentation of the status of tanks in that region. The authors feel that while lot of publications and publicity have been going on for decades for in depth studies and investments in the tanks of south India, lack of studies and therefore lack of publicity of tanks in eastern India has resulted in them going unnoticed by donor agencies. The present study therefore, attempts to explore this neglected terrain in terms of status of tanks in the eastern region of India. Further, fishery aspect has also been studied as it happens to be an inseparable part of tanks. Although fishery is an integral part of tank activities, it escapes the attention of researchers dealing with irrigation and gets neglected in research. Therefore, irrigation and fishery aspects of tanks have been studied not only through historical records but a survey of the two aspects has also been carried out in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa. IV CONTENTS 1. Foreword VI 2. Preface VII 3. List of Tables X 2. Abbreviation XII 3. Glossary XIII 4. Chapter-I Introduction 1 5. Chapter-II The Scenario of Tanks in Eastern India 20 6. Chapter-III Bihar 30 7. Chapter-IV Jharkhand 47 8. Chapter-V West Bengal 68 9. Chapter-VI Orissa 87 10. Chapter-VII Fishery - Non Irrigation uses of Tanks 103 11. Chapter-VIII Inter State Variations and Summing Up 121 12. Annexures 145-215 V FOREWORD Water is indispensable to agricultural production and livelihoods of many people. India is foremost among the countries in the world practicing various irrigation methods mostly through canals, tanks and wells. In the post independence period, the country has invested huge amount of capital in the major and the medium irrigation projects. However, the gap between the potential created and utilized has been increasing over the years. Given the high cost of developing the major irrigation projects, it is proved that minor irrigation sources like tanks and wells can play a key role in stabilizing the irrigated area in the country. Among the minor irrigation sources, wells and tube wells constitute the major share (58.7 per cent) followed by canals (25.7 per cent). Growth of well irrigation has been at the expense of irrigation from tanks and other sources. Looking at the tanks, during the period from 1950-2005, the area under tanks had been decreased from 3.6 million hectares to 2 million hectares. Tanks are mostly concentrated in areas where other sources of irrigation are less or completely absent. Marginal and small farmers are worst affected due to the continuous decline of tank irrigation for whom an alternative source of irrigation is either costly or not available. Efforts are underway to identify and implement programs that help stabilize the tank irrigation potential in the country. Several studies have highlighted the importance of tank rehabilitation programs. Most of the studies have focused on tanks in south India where in the intensity of tanks is primarily a function of rainfall pattern, terrain (slope) and soil types. This book is the outcome of an interesting and very important study on tanks in eastern India done by Dr. Niranjan Pant and Dr. Ravindra Verma under ITP during 2004-06. I am sure the findings of the study will re-emphasis the importance of tank irrigation in eastern India and will attract the government and other agencies to focus their future irrigation investment on tanks in this region. ITP has much benefited from this study and the resulting publication. I congratulate the authors for this very important contribution. K. Palanisami Director, ITP VI PREFACE I (Niranjan) had the privilege of participating in almost all of IWMI-Tata annual partners meetings and its planning workshops till April 2008. During all such meets one common topic of discussion used to be tank irrigation in India. However the proposed/ conducted studies used to be generally confined to south Indian tanks. On some occasions some speakers would argue for taking research on tank irrigation in the eastern region of India. Having done a study of tank irrigation in ahar-pyne systems of Bihar in 1997- 98, I knew how important these systems were both in the historical and temporal context and used to get provoked on such occasions. The culminating flash point came in the workshop meeting in March 2004 at IRMA, where it was proposed to study south Indian tanks involving a sum of Rs. 2.2 million funds from IWMI-Tata programme. I stoutly objected this proposal and later proposed a study of tanks in the eastern region of the country and after initial problems, was ultimately awarded a research grant of 3.89 lakh rupees. Since the coverage of the study was quite vast and the completion of the study had time constraints, I decided to share the task with Ravindra and the two of us carried out this study. Our working together was facilitated by the fact that we had worked together as a perfect research team in the early 1980s. After the study was completed sometime in January 2007, Tushar Shah wrote to me, “The historical picture you provide of irrigation in general and tank irrigation in particular is priceless. I enjoyed reading those sections on Bihar, Jharkhand as well as West Bengal.” This encouraged us to go for the publication of the study in to a book and it was thats how this book originated. The book explores the history and status of tanks in the four east Indian states. The book contents have been built around eight chapters. The contents in these chapters are often explained with the help of tables and whenever necessary material is provided in the annexure. Chapter one introduces tanks in general and those in eastern India in particular and highlights the paucity of available tank data. An important component of the chapter is the highlight of the utter neglect of tanks in the east Indian states and high preoccupation with south Indian tanks both in research and renovation/modernization. The chapter also covers research methodology and the process of selection of tanks for the study. The scenario in the East Indian states vis-à-vis south Indian states is examined in the second chapter with the help of available secondary data.