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Five successive years of debilitating drought. It had rained for barely a few hours last year in the region of Rajasthan I was visiting. I expected wasted lands, desolation and nearly-abandoned villages. Instead, I could see greenery, irrigated agriculture, people tending to vegetable crops and livestock. The village dairy — a one room stop-shop with an electronic machine to detect fat content in the milk — was lined with people bringing their product for sale. I found out they had sold Rs.34 lakh worth of milk last year. I asked about water and was told that there were 103 wells in the village. People could use the wells is for 1 hour each day to irrigate fields. The water was visible to the naked eye — some 50 feet below ground level.
How could this be? I was asking this question in Laporiya village, located some 2 hours from Jaipur in Rajasthan. My hosts were the Gram Vikas Yuvak MandaI and its head Laxman Singh. He took me to a map displayed in the village centre. The green painted area was the village common land — grazing land under government control. This, explained Singh, was the land they had to fight to regain control over, as it was encroached and degraded. On the map, squares had been painted. These denoted chaukas —a unique water harvesting system designed by Singh and his colleagues to retain every drop of rainwater and to recharge the aquifer. All over the common land, villagers had dug rectangular trenches less than a feet deep, so that rainwater would ‘jump' across the land till it flowed into the village tanks.
With this system in place, the village common land became a grand water collection area. Every drop was channelled and stored in the village's 3 connected tanks deepened by voluntary labour. Of the 1000-odd hectares (ha) of agricultural land, roughly 600 ha were irrigated. There was a gleam in Singh's eyes as he told me about the years of good rain when tanks would overflow. For the past few years the tanks had barely filled; today, they were bone dry. Still, the wells have water. Laporiya practices the conjunctive use of irrigation structures — surface and ground — that engineers love to boast about, hut have no clue how to build.
But what was clear — and this is the key policy message — is that it was the years of water harvesting (over 10 years in this case) that had built up groundwater reserves. Built it up so well that even repeated years of drought and scarcity could be withstood. Rainwater harvesting is like putting hard-earned money in a bank account: we prudently and repeatedly replenish the aquifer, then live off the interest and not mine the capital of the groundwater reserves. But this takes time. It takes people who care about their land, so that they care to harvest their water. This, unfortunately, is where policy goes horrendously wrong. Land is managed by a multitude of obdurate bureaucracies, water by another. By policy and in practice, we ensure that villagers are disenfranchised from the management of their resources.
Q. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
  • a)
    The village has 1000-odd hectares (ha) of irrigated land.
  • b)
    Villagers had dug rectangular trenches more than 1 feet deep.
  • c)
    Every drop of rainwater was channelled and stored in the village’s 3 wells.
  • d)
    None of the above
Correct answer is option 'D'. Can you explain this answer?
Verified Answer
Five successive years of debilitating drought. It had rained for barel...
Only 600 ha out of the 1000 ha land is irrigated so(A) is false. The trenches are less than 1 foot deep and hence (B) is false. The rainwater is stored in the village's 3 tanks and not in the wells and hence (C) is false.
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Five successive years of debilitating drought. It had rained for barely a few hours last year in the region of Rajasthan I was visiting. I expected wasted lands, desolation and nearly-abandoned villages. Instead, I could see greenery, irrigated agriculture, people tending to vegetable crops and livestock. The village dairy — a one room stop-shop with an electronic machine to detect fat content in the milk — was lined with people bringing their product for sale. I found out they had sold Rs.34 lakh worth of milk last year. I asked about water and was told that there were 103 wells in the village. People could use the wells is for 1 hour each day to irrigate fields. The water was visible to the naked eye — some 50 feet below ground level.How could this be? I was asking this question in Laporiya village, located some 2 hours from Jaipur in Rajasthan. My hosts were the Gram Vikas Yuvak MandaI and its head Laxman Singh. He took me to a map displayed in the village centre. The green painted area was the village common land — grazing land under government control. This, explained Singh, was the land they had to fight to regain control over, as it was encroached and degraded. On the map, squares had been painted. These denoted chaukas —a unique water harvesting system designed by Singh and his colleagues to retain every drop of rainwater and to recharge the aquifer. All over the common land, villagers had dug rectangular trenches less than a feet deep, so that rainwater would ‘jump across the land till it flowed into the village tanks.With this system in place, the village common land became a grand water collection area. Every drop was channelled and stored in the villages 3 connected tanks deepened by voluntary labour. Of the 1000-odd hectares (ha) of agricultural land, roughly 600 ha were irrigated. There was a gleam in Singhs eyes as he told me about the years of good rain when tanks would overflow. For the past few years the tanks had barely filled; today, they were bone dry. Still, the wells have water. Laporiya practices the conjunctive use of irrigation structures — surface and ground — that engineers love to boast about, hut have no clue how to build.But what was clear — and this is the key policy message — is that it was the years of water harvesting (over 10 years in this case) that had built up groundwater reserves. Built it up so well that even repeated years of drought and scarcity could be withstood. Rainwater harvesting is like putting hard-earned money in a bank account: we prudently and repeatedly replenish the aquifer, then live off the interest and not mine the capital of the groundwater reserves. But this takes time. It takes people who care about their land, so that they care to harvest their water. This, unfortunately, is where policy goes horrendously wrong. Land is managed by a multitude of obdurate bureaucracies, water by another. By policy and in practice, we ensure that villagers are disenfranchised from the management of their resources.Q.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?a)The village has 1000-odd hectares (ha) of irrigated land.b)Villagers had dug rectangular trenches more than 1 feet deep.c)Every drop of rainwater was channelled and stored in the village’s 3 wells.d)None of the aboveCorrect answer is option 'D'. Can you explain this answer?
Question Description
Five successive years of debilitating drought. It had rained for barely a few hours last year in the region of Rajasthan I was visiting. I expected wasted lands, desolation and nearly-abandoned villages. Instead, I could see greenery, irrigated agriculture, people tending to vegetable crops and livestock. The village dairy — a one room stop-shop with an electronic machine to detect fat content in the milk — was lined with people bringing their product for sale. I found out they had sold Rs.34 lakh worth of milk last year. I asked about water and was told that there were 103 wells in the village. People could use the wells is for 1 hour each day to irrigate fields. The water was visible to the naked eye — some 50 feet below ground level.How could this be? I was asking this question in Laporiya village, located some 2 hours from Jaipur in Rajasthan. My hosts were the Gram Vikas Yuvak MandaI and its head Laxman Singh. He took me to a map displayed in the village centre. The green painted area was the village common land — grazing land under government control. This, explained Singh, was the land they had to fight to regain control over, as it was encroached and degraded. On the map, squares had been painted. These denoted chaukas —a unique water harvesting system designed by Singh and his colleagues to retain every drop of rainwater and to recharge the aquifer. All over the common land, villagers had dug rectangular trenches less than a feet deep, so that rainwater would ‘jump across the land till it flowed into the village tanks.With this system in place, the village common land became a grand water collection area. Every drop was channelled and stored in the villages 3 connected tanks deepened by voluntary labour. Of the 1000-odd hectares (ha) of agricultural land, roughly 600 ha were irrigated. There was a gleam in Singhs eyes as he told me about the years of good rain when tanks would overflow. For the past few years the tanks had barely filled; today, they were bone dry. Still, the wells have water. Laporiya practices the conjunctive use of irrigation structures — surface and ground — that engineers love to boast about, hut have no clue how to build.But what was clear — and this is the key policy message — is that it was the years of water harvesting (over 10 years in this case) that had built up groundwater reserves. Built it up so well that even repeated years of drought and scarcity could be withstood. Rainwater harvesting is like putting hard-earned money in a bank account: we prudently and repeatedly replenish the aquifer, then live off the interest and not mine the capital of the groundwater reserves. But this takes time. It takes people who care about their land, so that they care to harvest their water. This, unfortunately, is where policy goes horrendously wrong. Land is managed by a multitude of obdurate bureaucracies, water by another. By policy and in practice, we ensure that villagers are disenfranchised from the management of their resources.Q.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?a)The village has 1000-odd hectares (ha) of irrigated land.b)Villagers had dug rectangular trenches more than 1 feet deep.c)Every drop of rainwater was channelled and stored in the village’s 3 wells.d)None of the aboveCorrect answer is option 'D'. Can you explain this answer? for CLAT 2024 is part of CLAT preparation. The Question and answers have been prepared according to the CLAT exam syllabus. Information about Five successive years of debilitating drought. It had rained for barely a few hours last year in the region of Rajasthan I was visiting. I expected wasted lands, desolation and nearly-abandoned villages. Instead, I could see greenery, irrigated agriculture, people tending to vegetable crops and livestock. The village dairy — a one room stop-shop with an electronic machine to detect fat content in the milk — was lined with people bringing their product for sale. I found out they had sold Rs.34 lakh worth of milk last year. I asked about water and was told that there were 103 wells in the village. People could use the wells is for 1 hour each day to irrigate fields. The water was visible to the naked eye — some 50 feet below ground level.How could this be? I was asking this question in Laporiya village, located some 2 hours from Jaipur in Rajasthan. My hosts were the Gram Vikas Yuvak MandaI and its head Laxman Singh. He took me to a map displayed in the village centre. The green painted area was the village common land — grazing land under government control. This, explained Singh, was the land they had to fight to regain control over, as it was encroached and degraded. On the map, squares had been painted. These denoted chaukas —a unique water harvesting system designed by Singh and his colleagues to retain every drop of rainwater and to recharge the aquifer. All over the common land, villagers had dug rectangular trenches less than a feet deep, so that rainwater would ‘jump across the land till it flowed into the village tanks.With this system in place, the village common land became a grand water collection area. Every drop was channelled and stored in the villages 3 connected tanks deepened by voluntary labour. Of the 1000-odd hectares (ha) of agricultural land, roughly 600 ha were irrigated. There was a gleam in Singhs eyes as he told me about the years of good rain when tanks would overflow. For the past few years the tanks had barely filled; today, they were bone dry. Still, the wells have water. Laporiya practices the conjunctive use of irrigation structures — surface and ground — that engineers love to boast about, hut have no clue how to build.But what was clear — and this is the key policy message — is that it was the years of water harvesting (over 10 years in this case) that had built up groundwater reserves. Built it up so well that even repeated years of drought and scarcity could be withstood. Rainwater harvesting is like putting hard-earned money in a bank account: we prudently and repeatedly replenish the aquifer, then live off the interest and not mine the capital of the groundwater reserves. But this takes time. It takes people who care about their land, so that they care to harvest their water. This, unfortunately, is where policy goes horrendously wrong. Land is managed by a multitude of obdurate bureaucracies, water by another. By policy and in practice, we ensure that villagers are disenfranchised from the management of their resources.Q.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?a)The village has 1000-odd hectares (ha) of irrigated land.b)Villagers had dug rectangular trenches more than 1 feet deep.c)Every drop of rainwater was channelled and stored in the village’s 3 wells.d)None of the aboveCorrect answer is option 'D'. Can you explain this answer? covers all topics & solutions for CLAT 2024 Exam. Find important definitions, questions, meanings, examples, exercises and tests below for Five successive years of debilitating drought. It had rained for barely a few hours last year in the region of Rajasthan I was visiting. I expected wasted lands, desolation and nearly-abandoned villages. Instead, I could see greenery, irrigated agriculture, people tending to vegetable crops and livestock. The village dairy — a one room stop-shop with an electronic machine to detect fat content in the milk — was lined with people bringing their product for sale. I found out they had sold Rs.34 lakh worth of milk last year. I asked about water and was told that there were 103 wells in the village. People could use the wells is for 1 hour each day to irrigate fields. The water was visible to the naked eye — some 50 feet below ground level.How could this be? I was asking this question in Laporiya village, located some 2 hours from Jaipur in Rajasthan. My hosts were the Gram Vikas Yuvak MandaI and its head Laxman Singh. He took me to a map displayed in the village centre. The green painted area was the village common land — grazing land under government control. This, explained Singh, was the land they had to fight to regain control over, as it was encroached and degraded. On the map, squares had been painted. These denoted chaukas —a unique water harvesting system designed by Singh and his colleagues to retain every drop of rainwater and to recharge the aquifer. All over the common land, villagers had dug rectangular trenches less than a feet deep, so that rainwater would ‘jump across the land till it flowed into the village tanks.With this system in place, the village common land became a grand water collection area. Every drop was channelled and stored in the villages 3 connected tanks deepened by voluntary labour. Of the 1000-odd hectares (ha) of agricultural land, roughly 600 ha were irrigated. There was a gleam in Singhs eyes as he told me about the years of good rain when tanks would overflow. For the past few years the tanks had barely filled; today, they were bone dry. Still, the wells have water. Laporiya practices the conjunctive use of irrigation structures — surface and ground — that engineers love to boast about, hut have no clue how to build.But what was clear — and this is the key policy message — is that it was the years of water harvesting (over 10 years in this case) that had built up groundwater reserves. Built it up so well that even repeated years of drought and scarcity could be withstood. Rainwater harvesting is like putting hard-earned money in a bank account: we prudently and repeatedly replenish the aquifer, then live off the interest and not mine the capital of the groundwater reserves. But this takes time. It takes people who care about their land, so that they care to harvest their water. This, unfortunately, is where policy goes horrendously wrong. Land is managed by a multitude of obdurate bureaucracies, water by another. By policy and in practice, we ensure that villagers are disenfranchised from the management of their resources.Q.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?a)The village has 1000-odd hectares (ha) of irrigated land.b)Villagers had dug rectangular trenches more than 1 feet deep.c)Every drop of rainwater was channelled and stored in the village’s 3 wells.d)None of the aboveCorrect answer is option 'D'. Can you explain this answer?.
Solutions for Five successive years of debilitating drought. It had rained for barely a few hours last year in the region of Rajasthan I was visiting. I expected wasted lands, desolation and nearly-abandoned villages. Instead, I could see greenery, irrigated agriculture, people tending to vegetable crops and livestock. The village dairy — a one room stop-shop with an electronic machine to detect fat content in the milk — was lined with people bringing their product for sale. I found out they had sold Rs.34 lakh worth of milk last year. I asked about water and was told that there were 103 wells in the village. People could use the wells is for 1 hour each day to irrigate fields. The water was visible to the naked eye — some 50 feet below ground level.How could this be? I was asking this question in Laporiya village, located some 2 hours from Jaipur in Rajasthan. My hosts were the Gram Vikas Yuvak MandaI and its head Laxman Singh. He took me to a map displayed in the village centre. The green painted area was the village common land — grazing land under government control. This, explained Singh, was the land they had to fight to regain control over, as it was encroached and degraded. On the map, squares had been painted. These denoted chaukas —a unique water harvesting system designed by Singh and his colleagues to retain every drop of rainwater and to recharge the aquifer. All over the common land, villagers had dug rectangular trenches less than a feet deep, so that rainwater would ‘jump across the land till it flowed into the village tanks.With this system in place, the village common land became a grand water collection area. Every drop was channelled and stored in the villages 3 connected tanks deepened by voluntary labour. Of the 1000-odd hectares (ha) of agricultural land, roughly 600 ha were irrigated. There was a gleam in Singhs eyes as he told me about the years of good rain when tanks would overflow. For the past few years the tanks had barely filled; today, they were bone dry. Still, the wells have water. Laporiya practices the conjunctive use of irrigation structures — surface and ground — that engineers love to boast about, hut have no clue how to build.But what was clear — and this is the key policy message — is that it was the years of water harvesting (over 10 years in this case) that had built up groundwater reserves. Built it up so well that even repeated years of drought and scarcity could be withstood. Rainwater harvesting is like putting hard-earned money in a bank account: we prudently and repeatedly replenish the aquifer, then live off the interest and not mine the capital of the groundwater reserves. But this takes time. It takes people who care about their land, so that they care to harvest their water. This, unfortunately, is where policy goes horrendously wrong. Land is managed by a multitude of obdurate bureaucracies, water by another. By policy and in practice, we ensure that villagers are disenfranchised from the management of their resources.Q.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?a)The village has 1000-odd hectares (ha) of irrigated land.b)Villagers had dug rectangular trenches more than 1 feet deep.c)Every drop of rainwater was channelled and stored in the village’s 3 wells.d)None of the aboveCorrect answer is option 'D'. Can you explain this answer? in English & in Hindi are available as part of our courses for CLAT. Download more important topics, notes, lectures and mock test series for CLAT Exam by signing up for free.
Here you can find the meaning of Five successive years of debilitating drought. It had rained for barely a few hours last year in the region of Rajasthan I was visiting. I expected wasted lands, desolation and nearly-abandoned villages. Instead, I could see greenery, irrigated agriculture, people tending to vegetable crops and livestock. The village dairy — a one room stop-shop with an electronic machine to detect fat content in the milk — was lined with people bringing their product for sale. I found out they had sold Rs.34 lakh worth of milk last year. I asked about water and was told that there were 103 wells in the village. People could use the wells is for 1 hour each day to irrigate fields. The water was visible to the naked eye — some 50 feet below ground level.How could this be? I was asking this question in Laporiya village, located some 2 hours from Jaipur in Rajasthan. My hosts were the Gram Vikas Yuvak MandaI and its head Laxman Singh. He took me to a map displayed in the village centre. The green painted area was the village common land — grazing land under government control. This, explained Singh, was the land they had to fight to regain control over, as it was encroached and degraded. On the map, squares had been painted. These denoted chaukas —a unique water harvesting system designed by Singh and his colleagues to retain every drop of rainwater and to recharge the aquifer. All over the common land, villagers had dug rectangular trenches less than a feet deep, so that rainwater would ‘jump across the land till it flowed into the village tanks.With this system in place, the village common land became a grand water collection area. Every drop was channelled and stored in the villages 3 connected tanks deepened by voluntary labour. Of the 1000-odd hectares (ha) of agricultural land, roughly 600 ha were irrigated. There was a gleam in Singhs eyes as he told me about the years of good rain when tanks would overflow. For the past few years the tanks had barely filled; today, they were bone dry. Still, the wells have water. Laporiya practices the conjunctive use of irrigation structures — surface and ground — that engineers love to boast about, hut have no clue how to build.But what was clear — and this is the key policy message — is that it was the years of water harvesting (over 10 years in this case) that had built up groundwater reserves. Built it up so well that even repeated years of drought and scarcity could be withstood. Rainwater harvesting is like putting hard-earned money in a bank account: we prudently and repeatedly replenish the aquifer, then live off the interest and not mine the capital of the groundwater reserves. But this takes time. It takes people who care about their land, so that they care to harvest their water. This, unfortunately, is where policy goes horrendously wrong. Land is managed by a multitude of obdurate bureaucracies, water by another. By policy and in practice, we ensure that villagers are disenfranchised from the management of their resources.Q.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?a)The village has 1000-odd hectares (ha) of irrigated land.b)Villagers had dug rectangular trenches more than 1 feet deep.c)Every drop of rainwater was channelled and stored in the village’s 3 wells.d)None of the aboveCorrect answer is option 'D'. Can you explain this answer? defined & explained in the simplest way possible. Besides giving the explanation of Five successive years of debilitating drought. It had rained for barely a few hours last year in the region of Rajasthan I was visiting. I expected wasted lands, desolation and nearly-abandoned villages. Instead, I could see greenery, irrigated agriculture, people tending to vegetable crops and livestock. The village dairy — a one room stop-shop with an electronic machine to detect fat content in the milk — was lined with people bringing their product for sale. I found out they had sold Rs.34 lakh worth of milk last year. I asked about water and was told that there were 103 wells in the village. People could use the wells is for 1 hour each day to irrigate fields. The water was visible to the naked eye — some 50 feet below ground level.How could this be? I was asking this question in Laporiya village, located some 2 hours from Jaipur in Rajasthan. My hosts were the Gram Vikas Yuvak MandaI and its head Laxman Singh. He took me to a map displayed in the village centre. The green painted area was the village common land — grazing land under government control. This, explained Singh, was the land they had to fight to regain control over, as it was encroached and degraded. On the map, squares had been painted. These denoted chaukas —a unique water harvesting system designed by Singh and his colleagues to retain every drop of rainwater and to recharge the aquifer. All over the common land, villagers had dug rectangular trenches less than a feet deep, so that rainwater would ‘jump across the land till it flowed into the village tanks.With this system in place, the village common land became a grand water collection area. Every drop was channelled and stored in the villages 3 connected tanks deepened by voluntary labour. Of the 1000-odd hectares (ha) of agricultural land, roughly 600 ha were irrigated. There was a gleam in Singhs eyes as he told me about the years of good rain when tanks would overflow. For the past few years the tanks had barely filled; today, they were bone dry. Still, the wells have water. Laporiya practices the conjunctive use of irrigation structures — surface and ground — that engineers love to boast about, hut have no clue how to build.But what was clear — and this is the key policy message — is that it was the years of water harvesting (over 10 years in this case) that had built up groundwater reserves. Built it up so well that even repeated years of drought and scarcity could be withstood. Rainwater harvesting is like putting hard-earned money in a bank account: we prudently and repeatedly replenish the aquifer, then live off the interest and not mine the capital of the groundwater reserves. But this takes time. It takes people who care about their land, so that they care to harvest their water. This, unfortunately, is where policy goes horrendously wrong. Land is managed by a multitude of obdurate bureaucracies, water by another. By policy and in practice, we ensure that villagers are disenfranchised from the management of their resources.Q.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?a)The village has 1000-odd hectares (ha) of irrigated land.b)Villagers had dug rectangular trenches more than 1 feet deep.c)Every drop of rainwater was channelled and stored in the village’s 3 wells.d)None of the aboveCorrect answer is option 'D'. Can you explain this answer?, a detailed solution for Five successive years of debilitating drought. It had rained for barely a few hours last year in the region of Rajasthan I was visiting. I expected wasted lands, desolation and nearly-abandoned villages. Instead, I could see greenery, irrigated agriculture, people tending to vegetable crops and livestock. The village dairy — a one room stop-shop with an electronic machine to detect fat content in the milk — was lined with people bringing their product for sale. I found out they had sold Rs.34 lakh worth of milk last year. I asked about water and was told that there were 103 wells in the village. People could use the wells is for 1 hour each day to irrigate fields. The water was visible to the naked eye — some 50 feet below ground level.How could this be? I was asking this question in Laporiya village, located some 2 hours from Jaipur in Rajasthan. My hosts were the Gram Vikas Yuvak MandaI and its head Laxman Singh. He took me to a map displayed in the village centre. The green painted area was the village common land — grazing land under government control. This, explained Singh, was the land they had to fight to regain control over, as it was encroached and degraded. On the map, squares had been painted. These denoted chaukas —a unique water harvesting system designed by Singh and his colleagues to retain every drop of rainwater and to recharge the aquifer. All over the common land, villagers had dug rectangular trenches less than a feet deep, so that rainwater would ‘jump across the land till it flowed into the village tanks.With this system in place, the village common land became a grand water collection area. Every drop was channelled and stored in the villages 3 connected tanks deepened by voluntary labour. Of the 1000-odd hectares (ha) of agricultural land, roughly 600 ha were irrigated. There was a gleam in Singhs eyes as he told me about the years of good rain when tanks would overflow. For the past few years the tanks had barely filled; today, they were bone dry. Still, the wells have water. Laporiya practices the conjunctive use of irrigation structures — surface and ground — that engineers love to boast about, hut have no clue how to build.But what was clear — and this is the key policy message — is that it was the years of water harvesting (over 10 years in this case) that had built up groundwater reserves. Built it up so well that even repeated years of drought and scarcity could be withstood. Rainwater harvesting is like putting hard-earned money in a bank account: we prudently and repeatedly replenish the aquifer, then live off the interest and not mine the capital of the groundwater reserves. But this takes time. It takes people who care about their land, so that they care to harvest their water. This, unfortunately, is where policy goes horrendously wrong. Land is managed by a multitude of obdurate bureaucracies, water by another. By policy and in practice, we ensure that villagers are disenfranchised from the management of their resources.Q.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?a)The village has 1000-odd hectares (ha) of irrigated land.b)Villagers had dug rectangular trenches more than 1 feet deep.c)Every drop of rainwater was channelled and stored in the village’s 3 wells.d)None of the aboveCorrect answer is option 'D'. Can you explain this answer? has been provided alongside types of Five successive years of debilitating drought. It had rained for barely a few hours last year in the region of Rajasthan I was visiting. I expected wasted lands, desolation and nearly-abandoned villages. Instead, I could see greenery, irrigated agriculture, people tending to vegetable crops and livestock. The village dairy — a one room stop-shop with an electronic machine to detect fat content in the milk — was lined with people bringing their product for sale. I found out they had sold Rs.34 lakh worth of milk last year. I asked about water and was told that there were 103 wells in the village. People could use the wells is for 1 hour each day to irrigate fields. The water was visible to the naked eye — some 50 feet below ground level.How could this be? I was asking this question in Laporiya village, located some 2 hours from Jaipur in Rajasthan. My hosts were the Gram Vikas Yuvak MandaI and its head Laxman Singh. He took me to a map displayed in the village centre. The green painted area was the village common land — grazing land under government control. This, explained Singh, was the land they had to fight to regain control over, as it was encroached and degraded. On the map, squares had been painted. These denoted chaukas —a unique water harvesting system designed by Singh and his colleagues to retain every drop of rainwater and to recharge the aquifer. All over the common land, villagers had dug rectangular trenches less than a feet deep, so that rainwater would ‘jump across the land till it flowed into the village tanks.With this system in place, the village common land became a grand water collection area. Every drop was channelled and stored in the villages 3 connected tanks deepened by voluntary labour. Of the 1000-odd hectares (ha) of agricultural land, roughly 600 ha were irrigated. There was a gleam in Singhs eyes as he told me about the years of good rain when tanks would overflow. For the past few years the tanks had barely filled; today, they were bone dry. Still, the wells have water. Laporiya practices the conjunctive use of irrigation structures — surface and ground — that engineers love to boast about, hut have no clue how to build.But what was clear — and this is the key policy message — is that it was the years of water harvesting (over 10 years in this case) that had built up groundwater reserves. Built it up so well that even repeated years of drought and scarcity could be withstood. Rainwater harvesting is like putting hard-earned money in a bank account: we prudently and repeatedly replenish the aquifer, then live off the interest and not mine the capital of the groundwater reserves. But this takes time. It takes people who care about their land, so that they care to harvest their water. This, unfortunately, is where policy goes horrendously wrong. Land is managed by a multitude of obdurate bureaucracies, water by another. By policy and in practice, we ensure that villagers are disenfranchised from the management of their resources.Q.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?a)The village has 1000-odd hectares (ha) of irrigated land.b)Villagers had dug rectangular trenches more than 1 feet deep.c)Every drop of rainwater was channelled and stored in the village’s 3 wells.d)None of the aboveCorrect answer is option 'D'. Can you explain this answer? theory, EduRev gives you an ample number of questions to practice Five successive years of debilitating drought. It had rained for barely a few hours last year in the region of Rajasthan I was visiting. I expected wasted lands, desolation and nearly-abandoned villages. Instead, I could see greenery, irrigated agriculture, people tending to vegetable crops and livestock. The village dairy — a one room stop-shop with an electronic machine to detect fat content in the milk — was lined with people bringing their product for sale. I found out they had sold Rs.34 lakh worth of milk last year. I asked about water and was told that there were 103 wells in the village. People could use the wells is for 1 hour each day to irrigate fields. The water was visible to the naked eye — some 50 feet below ground level.How could this be? I was asking this question in Laporiya village, located some 2 hours from Jaipur in Rajasthan. My hosts were the Gram Vikas Yuvak MandaI and its head Laxman Singh. He took me to a map displayed in the village centre. The green painted area was the village common land — grazing land under government control. This, explained Singh, was the land they had to fight to regain control over, as it was encroached and degraded. On the map, squares had been painted. These denoted chaukas —a unique water harvesting system designed by Singh and his colleagues to retain every drop of rainwater and to recharge the aquifer. All over the common land, villagers had dug rectangular trenches less than a feet deep, so that rainwater would ‘jump across the land till it flowed into the village tanks.With this system in place, the village common land became a grand water collection area. Every drop was channelled and stored in the villages 3 connected tanks deepened by voluntary labour. Of the 1000-odd hectares (ha) of agricultural land, roughly 600 ha were irrigated. There was a gleam in Singhs eyes as he told me about the years of good rain when tanks would overflow. For the past few years the tanks had barely filled; today, they were bone dry. Still, the wells have water. Laporiya practices the conjunctive use of irrigation structures — surface and ground — that engineers love to boast about, hut have no clue how to build.But what was clear — and this is the key policy message — is that it was the years of water harvesting (over 10 years in this case) that had built up groundwater reserves. Built it up so well that even repeated years of drought and scarcity could be withstood. Rainwater harvesting is like putting hard-earned money in a bank account: we prudently and repeatedly replenish the aquifer, then live off the interest and not mine the capital of the groundwater reserves. But this takes time. It takes people who care about their land, so that they care to harvest their water. This, unfortunately, is where policy goes horrendously wrong. Land is managed by a multitude of obdurate bureaucracies, water by another. By policy and in practice, we ensure that villagers are disenfranchised from the management of their resources.Q.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?a)The village has 1000-odd hectares (ha) of irrigated land.b)Villagers had dug rectangular trenches more than 1 feet deep.c)Every drop of rainwater was channelled and stored in the village’s 3 wells.d)None of the aboveCorrect answer is option 'D'. 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