India is facing various irrigation problems. One of these is the ubiquitous frantic quest for groundwater, with no or little limitation on its exploitation; another is the competition it may imply for collective irrigation which depends mainly on surface water; another one is the multiplicity of stakes involved in irrigation, including social, economic and political concerns, which makes solutions difficult to find. By gathering together cases from the hinterland of Puducherry, a region of South India where every village has its tank (semi-embanked seasonal lake) and some wells or/and tubewells, the authors assert that tank use cannot be analysed without considering access to groundwater, without examining the power linked to controlling access to the resource, and even that tank and well irrigation crises are heightened by this absence of integrated management of the water resource. The contributors to this book are either researchers or development practitioners, from geography, anthropology, agro-economy and environmental studies.

By G.J., Chaithra; Letha Devi G; P. Adhiguru and Praveen Rapaka