Bundelkhand’s ravine wastelands. Photo: Keya Acharya/IPS
BUNDELKHAND, India – Narrow, cobblestoned lanes separate the
rows of mud houses with cool interiors and mud-smoothened
patios, some with goats tethered to the wooden posts. This is
Tajpura village, deep in this water-stressed, drought-prone
region of northern India. An area of stark beauty marked by deep
ravines in central India, Bundelkhand spans the states of Uttar
Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The ruins of stone fortresses
dotting the landscape betray a history of constant warfare just
as the remnants of water courses and irrigation systems speak of
peaceable and prosperous times gone by. Bundelkhand suffers from
manmade problems, starting with the government’s misplaced land
and water policies that have worsened an already stressed
climatic situation caused by prolonged droughts and erratic
rainfall. Air dropping of ‘Prosopis juliflora’ seeds as a soil-
conservation measure in the 1960s resulted in the plant becoming
an invasive species that killed ind