Gurugram: Haryana has launched a plan to reclaim nearly two lakh acres of land hit by waterlogging and salinity with an integrated approach of five government departments, under the aegis of the Haryana Water Resources Authority (HWRA).
Keshni Anand Arora, chairperson of the HWRA, told ThePrint that according to a survey conducted by the government, over nine lakh acres of land in Haryana were affected by waterlogging and salinity.
Of this, the water table in two lakh acres is between 0 to 1.5 metres, rendering it completely unfit for agriculture. Nearly seven lakh acres of land have a water table between 1.51 to 3 metres.
Arora said the survey found that no single method could be applied for the reclamation of the entire land. “Hence, the government has planned an integrated approach under which different means like subsurface drainage, vertical drainage, saline water aquaculture, and green manuring, depending upon the extent of the problem, will be used for reclaiming the land. Haryana government’s agriculture, irrigation, forest and fisheries departments will be involved in the exercise. Besides, the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI) of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) will also be involved,” she added.
She further said that vertical drainage would be deployed on land where the water table is between 1.51 to 3 metres.
Waterlogging and salinity are big problems that plague large swathes of land in several districts of Haryana, and the government has not been able to get rid of this despite efforts in the last two decades.
According to an agriculture expert, who didn’t wish to be named, land in eight districts — Jhajjar, Rohtak, Bhiwani, Sonipat, Jind and Sirsa, Charkhi Dadri and Fatehabad — are severely affected.
“Large areas of these districts are affected by the twin problems of salinity and waterlogging making the land unfit for agriculture,” the expert added.
The expert further said that though the state government had made efforts to reclaim the agricultural land under its Haryana Operational Pilot Project (HOPP) in coordination with the Karnal-based CSSRI, the pace of work was very slow.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had told the state assembly in February 2020 that 12 villages — Fatehpuri, Goela Kalan, Khakhana, Ladpur, Machhrauli, Patasni, Sabili, Silana, Silani Pana Keso, Silani Pana Zalim, Chandol and Chandpur — were affected by waterlogging and salinity.
“At present, there is no proposal under consideration for reclamation of saline waterlogged soils of these villages. Moreover, the construction of a new canal is not a solution to remove the salinity problem,” Khattar had said in response to a question on whether it was a fact that there was a problem of waterlogging and salinity in Badli assembly constituency and whether the state government had a proposal to build a new canal to solve this problem.
In the “additional information” provided in reply to this question, the government said Haryana was in the forefront of the implementation of the Sub Surface Drainage (SSD) system for the reclamation of waterlogged and saline land.
“As of June 2019, an estimated area of 4,37,940 hectare in the State is affected with the problem of waterlogging and salinity, out of which about 35,809 hectare area is under critical condition (water table 0-1.5 m). Most affected areas fall in the districts of Rohtak, Sonepat, Jhajjar and Bhiwani followed by Jind, Palwal, Mewat Fatehabad etc., which goes on fluctuating depending upon the rainfall,” the reply said.
It added that a project, namely the Haryana Operational Pilot Project (HOPP), was started in 1994 with technical support of the Netherlands.
Khattar’s reply also said: “The department of agriculture has implemented SSD projects in 11,240 hectares of waterlogged and saline soils in the state with technical support of Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Karnal. The problem of waterlogging can be tackled through surface drainage, vertical drainage, bio-drainage and sub-surface drainage depending upon the nature and extent of the problem. However, where salinity and water-logging exist together, the laying of a sub-surface drainage system is the most effective technology. The affected area was reclaimed within 2-3 years through this technology. The average cost of a system under this technology is about Rs. 80,000/- per hectare.”
However, the Haryana agriculture department says, “According to the survey conducted by ground water cell in June 2020, about 982740 acres (393096 hectares) area is affected with the problem of water-logging and salinity in the State. Out of which, 1,74,470 acres (69788 hectares) area is affected severely (water table depth 0-1.5 meter). An area of 28,250 acres of water-logged and saline soils has been reclaimed during the last two decades in the State.”
What’s behind the salinity & waterlogging problem
Dr Sushil Kumar Kamra, Emeritus Scientist, Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Karnal, said there could be several reasons for the twin problem.
“Topography of the region is one of the biggest reasons why several parts of Haryana are hit by salinity and waterlogging. The areas of Jhajjar, Rohtak, Bhiwani, Sonipat, and Jind have a depression and are like a pond, and there is no natural drainage system. This is the reason why large parts of these districts are hit by waterlogging,” Kamra told ThePrint.
He said brackish groundwater was behind the problem in Fatehabad, Sirsa, the southwest districts of Punjab like Muktsar, parts of Bathinda and Fazilka and Hanumangarh and Ganganagar districts of Rajasthan.
“These areas were once sand dunes. However, the farmers levelled the land and made it fit for agriculture. The cotton crop that requires the maximum quantities of pesticides among all crops is largely grown here. When the rains come, the excessive pesticides percolate easily in the sandy soil and mix with the subsoil water making the water brackish as well as toxic to drink. This is the reason the Malwa belt of Punjab has become the cancer belt of the region,” he said.
Kamra added that one could easily understand this problem with the facts that the salinity of seawater ranges between 22 to 35 deci-siemens per metre (dS/m) while the drinking water should have a salinity content of 0.2 to 0.4 dS/m.
“However, the groundwater in several parts of Haryana, including the neighbouring districts of Punjab and Rajasthan is 25 to 30 dS/m,” Kamra said.
He said that waterlogging and soil salinity went hand in hand.
“If the rainfall in a region is less than 500 mm, the water table is above 1.5 metres (five feet) and groundwater salinity is more than 2 dS/m, the soil will be rendered unfit for cultivation due to salinity,” he added.
According to the government’s reply in the Vidhan Sabha, 1,419 hectares of land in Jhajjar, 5,350 hectares in Rohtak, 582 hectares in Bhiwani, 1,342 hectares in Sonipat, 1,513 hectares in Hisar, 570 hectares in Ambala, 1,137 hectares in Palwal and 14,330 hectares of land in Sirsa district had water table between 0 to 1.5 metres as in June 2019.
Kamra said the CSSRI got the subsurface drainage technology from the Netherlands as it had coordinated with the European country for two decades from 1983 to 2003.
“The Netherlands is the pioneer in this technology, and they also gifted a Rs 3 crore machine for this technique to the CSSRI,” he added.
Virender Lathar, a former principal scientist from the ICAR, however, said the problem of salinity and waterlogging was not very severe in Haryana.
“Of the 38 lakh-odd cultivable land in Haryana, hardly 40,000 hectares of land is hit by waterlogging at any given time. Hence, this is just one percent of the total land. In most of these areas, farmers have the option of sowing paddy in the kharif season that anyway needs standing water. The problem surfaces more during the rabi season in winter,” Lathar said.
He said the “sabhagi dhan” variety of paddy, which is drought-tolerant and salinity-tolerant, can be sown in such lands.
Lathar said when he was a student of agricultural sciences in the 1970s, large chunks of land in the old Karnal district, which included Kaithal district and the Safidon sub-division of Jind, had the problem of salinity and waterlogging.
However, with the planting of paddy over the years, the problem has gone, he said.
An official of the state agriculture department said in April last year, Chief Minister Khattar set a target of reclamation of one lakh acres of saline land in brackish water areas.
“To expedite the work and to achieve this target, the agriculture department is working closely with the CSSRI,” he added.
Farmers’ dharna for 10 weeks at Bhattu
Farmers from Bhattu Kalan in Fatehabad district staged a dharna under the banner ‘Bhumi Sudhar Aandolan’ for nearly 70 days, demanding the reclamation of their land hit by waterlogging before the government’s assurance came at the end of January.
They were supported by former minister Sampat Singh, former parliamentary secretary Prahlad Singh Gillankhera, and several other leaders.
Kamal Singh Bisla, an organiser of the farmers’ agitation, had told The Print that waterlogging and soil salinity made their lands uncultivable, and that they had made several representations to the state government.
He said the problem had spread over the last three decades. “Initially it was just Ban Mandori village in the Fatehabad district. But it soon spread to agricultural land in Pili Mandori, Thuian, Dhabi Kalan, Dhabi Khurd, Gadli, Samsaran, Bhattu Kalan, Shekhupur, and Sulikhera,” Bisla said.
Sampat Singh, a six-time MLA who was elected from the erstwhile Bhattu Kalan in 1982, 1987, 1991 and 1998, said thousands of acres have been rendered a wasteland because of waterlogging.
Bisla said the farmers ended their 10-week protest at Bhattu Kalan on 28 January, following the government’s word that their problem would be solved soon.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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