A Study on People's Participation in the Conservation of Rural Tanks for Sustainable Rural Development in Cuddalore District, Tamil Nadu, India

The participation of people in any task of the activity shows the perfect and fulfills the requirements of society in general and individual in specific. The sustainable development in rural area requires the natural resources conservation with the effective people’s participation for the sustainable utilization without damage. At this juncture, rural tanks play a very crucial role in the process of sustainable development in its command area. Many numbers of tank institution are functioning for each tank system to resolve the issues related to maintenance of rural tanks and water sharing disputes between the head reach and tail-end users. Less people’s participation and lack of attention of water users of the rural tanks shown that the rural tank systems have been reduced and retrenched, which resulted in decreasing the total crop land under cultivation and reduction in the benefits available. Some of the rural tanks have been destroyed and urbanised due to intensity of population and enhancement of modern marketing. All these endangered issues are due to lack of people’s participation and prolonged misuse and severe encroachment. They are caused to push and create the problem of water scarcity and resources logging. Based on the background stated above, an attempt has been made to analyse the conservation of rural tanks for sustainable rural development through effective people’s participation.