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Watershed projects in India have grown in recent years from mere technical interventions to restore degraded lands and vegetation to more specific poverty alleviation initiatives. Monitoring of such programmes is critical and existing evaluation techniques do not represent realistic scenarios. In this paper, an effort has been made to quantify the livelihoods of watershed communities by using socio-economic indicators. The analysis was performed for the villages of Dudhi micro-watershed. The socio-economic data from three PRA (participatory rural appraisal) exercises, conducted during 1995, 2002 and 2004, have been processed. The asset portfolio of the individual households has been quantified with the help of proposed indicators and all the indices have been estimated. Various interventions implemented as part of a development programme in the Dudhi micro watershed were simulated using the model ArcSWAT, including structures such and checkdams, ponds and changes in landuse/cover. Factor analysis was performed for the possible linkages between the impacts of watershed management on livelihoods. The results estimate annual watershed growth rate to be 1.2%, which is much lower than the national rural growth rate of India.

Over 85% of the Indian territory lies within its major and medium interstate rivers. Known worldwide as a ‘federation sui generis’, India has the unique distinction of having a federal form of government with a strong unitary bias. This study analyses the sufficiency of the Indian Constitutional provisions and the parliamentary legislations in providing a comprehensive and lasting solution to the problems of interstate rivers in India. The basic philosophies behind the international water sharing laws have been analysed with a view to resolving the interstate water disputes in India. The Constitutional provisions relating to the Centre-state relations are discussed with special emphasis on the provisions relating to the water disputes. The relevant parliamentary legislations have been critically examined. Finally, an action plan has been suggested to resolve the conflicts pertaining to the interstate rivers in India.