ICAR – Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation :

The institute  headquarters is located at Dehradun. It represents typical humid subtropical climate of Western mid to foot hill Himalayas receiving average annual rainfall of 1681 mm spread over 98 rainy days. Average maximum and minimum temperatures are 30 degrees and 3.5 degrees Celsius during May and January respectively.

History :

The ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation (ICAR-IISWC), (Formerly CSWCRTI) was established on 1st April,1974 with Headquarters at Dehradun by combining Soil and Water Conservation Research, Demonstration and Training Centres which were established in 1950’s at Dehradun, Kota, Bellary, Udhagamandalam, Vasad, Agra and Chandigarh. These centres were initially established by the Govt. of  India and transferred to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on 1st  October, 1967. Subsequently two new Research Centres were added to the CSWCRTI, one at Datia in M.P. (18th September, 1986) to tackle soil and water conservation problems of  Bundelkhand region and another at Koraput in Orissa (31st January, 1992) to address the problems of shifting cultivation areas.

The Institute and Research Centres have focused on evolving strategies for controlling land degradation following watershed approach, tackling special problems such as ravines, landslides, mine spoils and torrents, demonstration of technologies for popularization and imparting training besides developing technologies for water harvesting and recycling. In 1956, experimental watersheds were set up for generating watershed-based protection and production technologies. From 1974 onward, the Institute pioneered in operationalizing the watershed concept through four Operational Research Projects at Sukhomajri (Haryana), Nada (Chandigarh), Fakot (Tehri-Garhwal in Uttarakhand), and G.R. Halli (Chitradurga, Karnataka). After realizing tremendous tangible and intangible benefits from these watersheds, the ICAR developed 47 model watersheds in sixteen states in collaboration with State Agricultural Universities and State Departments.

Encouraged with the success of the model watersheds, the Ministry of Agriculture conceived of a massive National Watershed Development Programme for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA) for conservation and sustainable development in 29 states during 1991. Subsequently, the focus of watershed development programmes shifted towards community participation besides biophysical aspects to achieve sustainability in production systems. Success of the watershed management programmes also attracted many international agencies like World Bank, ICIMOD, EEC, DANIDA, KfW Germany, SIDA and Swiss Development Corporation for collaboration and funding support.

Goals and Targets  :

The Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation has continuously strived hard for effective development and management of the country’s precious soil and water resources through frontier research and imparting technical skills to manpower engaged in the field of natural resource conservation and watershed management.

Vision 2050 :

Vision  is conservation and management of soil and water resources of the country for sustainable and enhanced production. The following strategies would be adopted to accomplish the vision and goal of the Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation and enhance the efficient utilization of natural resources for sustainable production.

Develop knowledge base and expert systems :

•  Analysis of hydrologic extremes and assessment of Hydrologic Foot Prints (HFP) of various BMPs to upscale watershed technologies to a larger scale.
• Use of advanced techniques such as artificial intelligence, process modelling, remote sensing, GIS and development of decision support system and expert system for watershed planning, water resources development and management, and land use planning and management for productivity enhancement.
• Upscaling and dissemination of conservation technologies through modelling applications, software and web technologies.

Climate change mitigation and adaptations :

• Development of appropriate cost effective user friendly rainwater harvesting, conveyance and application interventions under various rainfall scenarios.
• Development of cost effective mass erosion control measures for controlling landslides, riparian zone erosion and mine spoils keeping in view the threats from changed rainfall patterns due to climate change.

Assess land degradation and erosion risk for conservation planning  :

• Development of physical, chemical and biological indicators for assessment of land degradation and impact of conservation measures on soil health.
• Development of erosion productivity relationship under different agroclimatic zones to help modify cropping systems in relation to intensity of degradation and vulnerability.

Conservation agriculture for land and water Management  :

• For effective farm mechanisation- suitable implements are required to be evaluated to carry out the important operations keeping in view the principle of conservation agriculture.
• Long term evaluation of conservation agriculture practices for resource conservation under rainfed conditions.

Congruent planning of surface and groundwater (COP-SAG) :

• Based on the fact that technology will be developed to delineate both the surface and groundwater regime, integrated water resource management planning would become more effective in following ways:
• Assess water availability and upstream-downstream linkages at micro and macro watershed scales employing modern tools and procedures for effective planning of watersheds and conjunctive use of surface and groundwater.
• Characterization of hydrology of springs and other natural water sources and develop bio-engineering technology for spring sanctuaries for effective recharging and perenniality of flow.
•  Augmenting groundwater recharge from surface storage structures and need based sizing through full scale hydrological monitoring with due regard to surface water quality.

Precision conservation and green technology :

•  Identification of hot spots from point of view of soil erosion hazards and land degradation processes in different landforms like hill slopes, ravines, stream banks, torrents, rainfed uplands, and flood plains.
•  Develop the concept of Apply Where Needed (AWN) for precision conservation based on watershed scale models, high resolution remote sensing and GIS for drainage line treatment, mass erosion control, and partial area treatment of watersheds.

Infrastructure Requirement  :

State of art laboratories for hydrology, soil and water will be required to conduct various research activities. Besides these, well equipped research farm, office, hostel and training centre facilities would be required at all the Research Centres of the Institute.

                    The research and training experience of the Institutes and its Research Centres is being utilized by the Ministries of Agriculture, Rural Development, Environment & Forests, and various Central and State departments in their developmental programmes.