Bundelkhand Region

A sample survey conducted in 10 villages of Tikamgarh block of Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh found that farmer debt is in the form of a deep emotional and financial relationship between farmers and moneylenders. The latter provide quick finance when the former need it, and are thus viewed as saviours. But they also extract very high returns, which push farmers into a debt trap from which they are unlikely to secure release unless they take extreme measures.

The Bundelkhand region in India has been dealing with a severe water crisis for the last two decades. This water crisis has received a significant amount of attention from the central government, media and academics. However, although multiple policies and acts have been passed, and extensive resources distributed, there has not been much improvement on the ground. This thesis analyzes the reasons behind ineffective water governance and implementation at all levels of government, and concludes that over-centralization of planning, crisis-response rather than long-term planning, and a lack of pragmatic planning are key to understanding the current situation. More generally, the disjointed nature of water governance in India has made it difficult for the public sector to carry out cohesive planning approaches. We suggest reforms that can be adopted, and consider the possible consequences to water management and planning if Bundelkhand were to become a separate state.

The aim of this paper is to present the literature of the meteorological aphorisms in some North Indian Indo-Aryan languages. Our presentation is based only upon written data, which are available in collections of proverbs and other sayings or in corpus of folk astrology.
The meteorological aphorisms, which can be considered as a class by themselves, contain two kinds of elements dealing respectively with the observation and the forecasting of weather and crops. This literature can be presented as didactic and predictive and is connected with folk astrology, especially as far as expressing date and time is concerned. Moreover, in North India, such corpus have been ascribed to legendary astrologers, whose names, as can be seen in the bhanitas, are linked with one another.
Many meteorological aphorisms can be traced as identical, with small formulary or dialectic differences, in many regions of North India. Hence we have a "continuum" of both aphorisms and formulae, the variations of which indicate their diffusion and their circulation. Thus, on the basis of this continuum, it is possible to create a thesaurus of meteorological aphorisms, which could be the beginning of a critical study.

This essay makes sense of the trauma of cinematic un-belonging, whether sedimented over a landscape situated in the crevices of caste-revenge and justice, or extracted from nonplussed strangers trapped in the photographic meanwhile of Hindi cinema's ground-zero, via two landmark films situated orthogonal to popular cinema's straightforward certitudes.

"India is a country of cultural, economic and political diversity. This diversity provides us a unique opportunity to understand various economic, political and cultural complexities of our society. Diversity does not mean inequality among various components of an economy; it means availability of different alternatives. Steady and sustained growth of an economy requires inclusive growth of every sector and section of an economy and
society. The growth of different religion, languages, cast, and geographical area should be balanced in such a way so that no factor can be proved as negative factor and every section participates in the growth of economy at equal rate. As some areas have good potential to grow but some areas don’t have such benefits and due to this they reported low growth, in such condition government requires to pay special attention on these areas so that they can also participate in economic growth at equal rate. A society can be improved only when its contributory parts grow at equal rate. If any contributing factor gets less facilities and opportunities as compared to availability of those facilities to others, that section will certainly contribute at low rate and condition of that section will deteriorate further. Likewise gender inequality also requires attention by the policy makers. Every religion, cast and political economy gets contribution from
male and female both. And as our society is male dominated, condition of women could not be supposed good whether we discuss about their health, education or awareness. This research paper is an attempt to analyse the level of women development from the perspective of health and education in Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh."

This study of the nature and extent of livelihood vulnerability of farm households in the Bundelkhand
region of Uttar Pradesh, India, involved the computation of livelihood vulnerability indices and indices of
exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity for different social communities. The empirical findings reveal
that farmers belonging to Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities were relatively highly exposed and sensitive
to climate change and least able to adapt. In this light, several policy recommendations are proposed to
improve the livelihood security of vulnerable groups.

This article deals with architecture, temple design and art in ancient India with special reference to the Chandella architecture in the Mahoba District. Mahoba district lies between 25 0 01'30" and 25 0 39'40" north latitude and 79 0 15'00" and 80 0 10'30" east longitude, situated

The present study has integrated both spatially and temporally varying drought vulnerability factors to develop an integrated drought vulnerability map for Dhasan basin. A drought vulnerability index is used to classify the study area into different vulnerability zones. From the drought vulnerability assessment for the study area during July 2002, it was observed that the northeast, northwest and extreme southern part of the basin (20% area) was under critical vulnerability condition whereas the southwest and central part of the basin (79.9% area) was under high vulnerability condition. The critical drought vulnerability condition existed in Dhamoni, Pidaruwa, Sagar, Patharia Hat, Chhapri, Baroda Sagar and Singtoni region, whereas high vulnerability condition existed in the remaining parts of the study area. The integrated drought vulnerability approach gives superior result for drought assessment as compared to vulnerability assessment by considering the individual factors for the study area.

Mahua flowers, fruits and seeds, tendu leaves and firewood are a major source of livelihood for people living in hilly areas of Bundelkhand, like the Kols in Patha area of Chitrakoot, tribal groups living in and around forests of Panna district and Sahariyas of Lalitpur district. Mahua flower, collected in March-April, is used to make alcohol locally for domestic consumption and sale. Mahua fruit, collected in June-July, is used in production of medicines and oil, and sold to middlemen. Whole families, including children and the aged, are engaged in collection of these products. In terms of value, tendu leaves are the most important forest produce in Bundelkhand and its collection and sale is done through state agencies in both UP and MP. Wages from tendu collection are a crucial source of supplementary income to tribal families in the lean agriculture season. However, compared to final sale value, quantity-based wages paid for collection are low and instances of delayed or improperly calculated wage payments are common. Tendu leaves, collected by tribals, are used to wrap beedis, after drying and curing. Mature leaves are collected from around the middle of April to the middle of May, over a period of around six weeks. Whole families are engaged in tendu leaf collection, receiving wages as per number of bundles. In MP, collection is organized through cooperative societies of people involved in the job. The societies sell leaves packed in bags to the MP State Minor Forest Produce Federation, which fixes rates every year. In 2006, the rate for one standard bag of 50,000 leaves was Rs 400 only. Collection of firewood and sale in nearby markets is a regular source of income for families with little or no productive land. The extent of this business can be gauged any morning in Manikpur railway station, in Chitrakoot district, when hundreds of bundles of firewood collected from the Patha jungles, are loaded in passenger trains, for sale at other places. Study of 53 households living on the outskirts of the Panna Reserve Forest in Panna district, conducted as part of the MP Human Development Report 2002, and revealed that the households earned a total annual income of around Rs. 3.23 lakhs through collection of tendu leaves, mahua products and firewood. The households plucked tendu leaves worth Rs. 1.5lakh, which were sold to cooperatives. Mahua leaves and nuts worth Rs. 98,000 were either sold in local markets (hats) or to traders in barter. Fuel wood worth Rs. 65,000 annually, was sold to employees of the Majhgawan diamond mines nearby. While the 53 households also had other income sources, the income from forest produce accounted for 85 % of the total income of 46 households. Each family on an average earned Rs 9450 from the forests. Other forest produce collected and sold is medicinal plants and products like harra, gond, imli, khair, chiraunji, babul, anjan and salbeaj. Income from forests can increase in a sustainable manner, for the benefit of tribal groups and the State, if forest management practices are fundamentally altered. The current reality is that, as in most other parts of India, the forest department and communities living in and around forests in Bundelkhand are in an adversarial position. This does not help the forest department, the communities, or the forests.

The prediction of probable maximum precipitation (PMP) and annual one-day maximum rainfall at different return periods were carried out for providing necessary information required for designing of various soil and water conservation structures like field bunding, vegetative waterways, field diversions, check dams, gully control structures etc. for the drought prone region of Dhasan basin lies in Bundelkhand region. It has been estimated that the one day PMP varies from the highest 682.8 mm at Sagar to the lowest 290.4 mm at Banda, whereas it lies at about 334.7 mm for Khurai region.

The present study has integrated both spatially and
temporally varying drought vulnerability factors to
develop an integrated drought vulnerability map for
Dhasan basin. A drought vulnerability index is used to
classify the study area into different vulnerability
zones. From the drought vulnerability assessment
for the study area during July 2002, it was observed
that the northeast, northwest and extreme southern
part of the basin (20% area) was under critical vulnerability
condition whereas the southwest and central
part of the basin (79.9% area) was under high
vulnerability condition. The critical drought vulnerability
condition existed in Dhamoni, Pidaruwa,
Sagar, Patharia Hat, Chhapri, Baroda Sagar and
Singtoni region, whereas high vulnerability condition existed in the remaining parts of the study area. The
integrated drought vulnerability approach gives
superior result for drought assessment as compared to
vulnerability assessment by considering the individual
factors for the study area.

Drought monitoring is an important aspect for assessing and forecasting the drought risk for an area. The various types of drought including the meteorological drought and groundwater drought have been analysed using the appropriate drought indicators for Dhasan basin. This has helped in understanding the spatio-temporal variation of droughts including duration, severity and also helped to capture the progression and withdrawal of droughts during various months of the identified drought years. Based on the Effective Drought Index (EDI), four major drought events have been identified during 1981-82, 1988-89, 2002-03 and 2007-08. The drought severity assessment based on the EDI, indicates that the maximum drought severity of-33.49 had occurred during September 2006 and May 2008 and it was of longest duration (21 months) in the area under Banda rain gauging station. An increasing trend of meteorological drought severity has been observed for all the rain gauging stations in Dhasan basin. Hydrological drought characteristics have been evaluated using Groundwater Drought Index (GDI), which indicates that the groundwater drought severity is increasing gradually in the study area. During August 2002, about 0.78 sq. km. area was under severe drought whereas, during November 2002 about 46.01 sq. km. of the area was under severe drought and only 0.62 sq. km. area was under extreme drought conditions. Highlights • Meteorological drought characteristics have been evaluated using Effective Drought Index (EDI) indicates an increasing trend in drought severity for Dhasan basin with maximum severity of-33.49 occurred during 2006 to 2008. • Spatial and temporal distributions of meteorological drought have also been studied. • Ground water drought characteristics have also been assessed using Groundwater Drought Index (GDI) to study the hydrological drought situation in the basin area.

The goal of this research is to identify Tikamgarh district villages as rural tourism destinations. Tikamgarh is a district in northern Madhya Pradesh. One of the rural districts with rare wildlife, a glorious history, and rich culture. It consists of 682 villages. Secondary data has been gathered in order to identify and improve the rural potential of the Tikamgarh district. This paper concludes that rural tourism development and enhancement could benefit the Tikamgarh district.
Keywords: Rural Tourism, Tikamgarh District, Agriculture, Village, Tourism, Panna

Food insecurity exists in a particular location when all people living there do not, at all times, have 'physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs' according to a definition of the Food Aid Organization (FAO) of the Unfold insecurity in India has been mapped by the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai and World Food Program (WFP) of the FAO, which have drawn up food.The mapping does not look only at availability of food, which is the primary but not sufficient criterion. It also looks at access to food, which is determined by purchasing power, and can be severely affected by disasters like floods and drought. Purchasing power is in turn determined by access to livelihood opportunities. Access to food is also affected by caste and gender discrimination. Another basic factor to consider is utilization of food-the body's ability to absorb food, or the health status of an individual, which is determined at the very basic level by access to safe drinking water, health services, and sanitation facilities. Food insecurity is thus a complex issue, and the rural India food insecurity atlas uses 19 indicators, including per capita consumption of food grain, percentage of population consuming less than 1890 calories a day, percentage of drought-prone area, poverty line, percentage of population dependant on labor and rural and health infrastructure index. Based on these indicators, the states of Bihar and Jharkhand were classified in 2004 as 'extremely (food) insecure' and UP and MP were deemed 'severely insecure'. In this 'severely insecure' area, we get a more detailed picture of MP Bundelkhand districts from the Food Insecurity Atlas of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh prepared earlier, in 2000, by WFP. The objective of the study was 'vulnerability analysis and mapping' of food insecure areas in these two states. The 20 indicators chosen, under five broad categories, were related to the three basic aspects of food insecurity mentioned above, namely food availability, accessibility and utilization. A composite vulnerability index, derived from category-wise indexes, showed that the most vulnerable district of MP was Jhabua, with a score of 1.61. The least vulnerable of the districts was Neemuch with a score of 0.61. Within MP Bundelkhand, the most vulnerable district was Panna (1.23) followed by Damoh (1.02), Sagar (0.80), Datia and Chhatarpur (0.79), and Tikamgarh (0.76). This objectively deduced vulnerability assessment reflects the food insecurity assessment made by households themselves: the 2002 BPL Survey reported that over 85% of rural households in Panna and Damoh, and around 80% of households in Chhatarpur and Tikamgarh districts said that they did not have enough food throughout the year. It is no coincidence that Jhabua, Panna and Damoh have a high ST population. Irrespective of everything else, ST groups of peninsular India are the most food insecure section of the country's population, suffering the most under all three aspects of rural food insecurity: they have poor quality of agricultural land, have very little purchasing power and have low health status and access to health facilities. In UP Bundelkhand, ST groups (though not recognized as such by the state government) are found in Chitrakoot and Lalitpur, and it was from the latter district that the first report of 'hunger death' in Bundelkhand in recent times, made national headlines, in 2001. Subsequently, in 2003, there were reports about poor families forced to survive by 'eating grass', following media visits organized by Bundelkhand Sewa Sansthan (BSS), an NGO associated with ABSSS, to the interior regions of Madawara block of Lalitpur district, where Sahariyas live in large numbers. Following the reports, the district collector and magistrate (DM), Umesh Kumar Mittal, and his colleagues were moved to action. They decided to visit a few villages and the BSS organized a public hearing. Sheelrani, a woman