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Climate variability, water stress, land degradation, and biodiversity loss continue to place growing pressure on rural livelihoods, particularly in rain-fed, tribal, and forest-fringe regions. National priorities around water conservation, afforestation, and locally driven resource management underline the need for more integrated and resilient ecosystems.
The Trusts support landscape-level approaches that strengthen the interdependence between land, water, forests, commons, and biodiversity systems. This includes watershed development, low-cost water harvesting structures, groundwater recharge, and improved stewardship of natural resources to enhance water security, landscape restoration, and weather risk preparedness.
The Trusts also support integrated livelihood approaches in forest-fringe communities through sustainable agriculture, community stewardship, and stronger convergence with government programmes and evolving local management systems.
The Tata Trusts’ Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) programme supports the creation of low-cost water harvesting and groundwater recharge structures such as farm ponds, dohas, check dams, and contour bunds in rain-fed and water-stressed regions. These interventions address a critical challenge. According to the National Commission on Integrated Water Resources Development (NCIWRD), a significant proportion of India's annual rainfall is lost through evaporation, surface runoff, and difficult terrain, limiting the amount of water available for productive use.
For over two decades, the partnership between the International Water Management Institute, Colombo, and the Tata Trusts, the IWMI-Tata Water Policy Research Programme (ITP) has played a defining role in strengthening India’s water, energy, agriculture, and livelihoods landscape through evidence-based field research, action research and policy engagement.
Community forests and commons continue to play a critical role in supporting livelihoods and ecological security across rural India, particularly in tribal and forest-fringe regions. These landscapes provide fodder, fuel, water regulation, soil conservation, and access to Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFPs) such as bamboo, lac, and medicinal plants that supplement household incomes. However, increasing ecological pressure, fragmented landscapes, and rising human-wildlife interactions are affecting both livelihoods and local resource systems.
