Monitoring and Evaluation of Watershed Development

ISRO, jointly with Antrix Corporation and Watershed Development Department, Government of Karnataka, organised a one-day workshop on Watershed Development on November 9, 2005 at Antariksh Bhavan, Bangalore, the headquarters of ISRO. The workshop was inaugurated by Shri G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO. Dr Dunu Roy, World Bank Expert was the chief guest and
Shri A Ramaswamy, Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Horticulture, Government of Karnataka, presided.

Karnataka initiated the watershed development project, SUJALA, in 2001 with the assistance of World Bank. The project covers 77 sub-watersheds and 747 micro-watersheds in 38 talukas located in five districts of Karnataka and extends to 5.11 lakh hectares. It is expected to benefit more than 4 lakh households. So far, activities in 80 micro-watersheds have already been completed and work is in progress in 184 micro-watersheds. Another 473 micro-watersheds’ development has been initiated.
Under the contract from World Bank, Antrix has been assigned the responsibility of monitoring the progress of SUJALA project. Data from Indian remote sensing satellites and conventional ground data have been successfully used to monitor and evaluate the SUJALA watershed development project for which the methodology has been developed by ISRO/Antrix.

Inauguration of workshop by Mr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO in the traditional way