The man who pioneered the radical technological and social innovations that repair and restore degraded water sheds and guarantee each family within a community an equal share of the water harvested, was the founder of an engineering company. The massive drought of 1972 affected the lives of over 4 lakh people in Maharashtra. There was no water available for agriculture or cattle. Even drinking water was scarce and tankers would supply water for basic needs. This catastrophic situation was an eye-opener for Mr. Salunkhe and he decided to intervene.

Travelling extensively in various areas of Maharashtra, he found that villagers would break stones for road construction in a desperate bid to earn subsistence allowance from the government.

Mr. Salunkhe, an engineer by profession, realized that environmental regeneration and water shed development with community participation was the only solution. He chose Naigaon village in Purandar Taluka of Pune district to implement his initiative. Rainfall in this region fluctuated between 250 mm and 500mm. He initially tried his ideas of water shed development on a 16-hectare plot of hillside in Naigaon village. The land belonged to the temple trust but it was barren and uncultivable. He got the land from the trust on a 50-year lease and built a hut where he and his family lived and worked with the community.

Conserving soil and harvesting water was given top priority. A series of contour bunds were raised to trap water and check soil erosion. At the base of the hill slope, a percolation tank that could hold upto a million cubic feet of water was constructed. A well was dug below it and water pumped from there up the hill slope for irrigating the fields. Trees were planted in the rocky areas; fruit trees grown in the more fertile areas and grass and shrubs regenerated on lands not being cultivated. Slowly production from the land increased. As against two to four bags of grain in an year, 100 quintals was harvested and enough employment was generated for the survival of five households and their cattle. Half an acre of irrigated land could provide a man’s food needs for the whole year.

The Naigaon experiment was ready for duplication in other parts of the state. Water had to be treated as common property resource with all villagers having equal rights and access to it. So five basic principles of the pani panchayat or Gram Gaurav Pratishtan were evolved . These are in operation to this day:

These are in operation to this day:
~ Irrigation schemes are undertaken for groups of farmers, rather than for individuals. Water is allocated on the basis of number of members in a family, rather than in proportion to the land holding. A family unit of five is given water rights for irrigation of one hectare of land.

~ Cropping is restricted to seasonal crops with low water requirement. Crops that require perennial irrigation and large amounts of water like sugarcane, bananas and turmeric cannot be cultivated in pani panchayat areas.

1.  Water rights are not attached to land rights. If land is sold, the water rights revert back to the farmers’ collective.              
2.  All members of community, including the landless have right to water.

3.  The beneficiaries of the panchayat have to bear 20 percent of the cost of the scheme. They have to plan, administer and manage the scheme and distribute water in an equitable manner.

4.  With farmers paying 20 percent of the cost of lift irrigation, the government provided another 50 percent and the remaining 30 percent was provided by pani panchayat as interest free loan.

5.  The half a dozen landless people of Mahur who have joined the pani panchayat scheme have taken land on lease from landholders and put to good use their quota of water. They too have prospered and now some of them have bought land.