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3.10 Vegetation
The region was endowed with diversified land
use systems ranging from agriculture to forestry.
However, in the last 50 years, community barren
lands and large parts of forest areas abutting
villages have been encroached upon by villagers.
One consequence is that access to fuel, fodder and
pasture lands has become a problem in many of
the villages in the study mandals.
Table 7 summarises the results of a qualitative
vegetation survey that was carried out in Dhone
and Kalyandurg. Although the lists obtained were
quite encouraging, the main observation of the
survey was the high prevalence of prosophis
juliflora in wasteland areas, along gullies and
along roadsides. It was assumed that this was
due in part to degradation and overgrazing.
3.11 Land Holdings
Cadastral information was collected and
updated in digital format. In addition to
providing a valuable cross-check of land use,
village/mandal area and well statistics, these data
provided an important source of information for
analysis relating to levels of land fragmentation,
economics of well construction and identification
of the main beneficiaries of water harvesting and
groundwater-based irrigation. Figure 16 is a
composite layout of spatial and non-spatial
cadastral data that is presented to give an example
of the level of detail available in the cadastral
database. It should be noted that this information,
which is held and updated by the Revenue
Department, is rarely used by development
programmes. The villagewise size distribution
of land holdings on patta land in Kalyandurg is
presented in Figure 17. It can be seen that the
average size of holding, size of holding distribution
and number of land owners varies enormously
from village to village. In both Dhone and
Kalyandurg, the average size of holding is
declining as a result of inheritance arrangements
that involve splitting land between sons.
However, extended families often farm their
holdings as one unit or, at the very least,
cooperatively. Consequently, the size of individual
holdings is not always a reliable indicator of
levels of poverty. It was found also that, in both
mandals, cooperative use of groundwater
(i.e. sharing of wells) was common by members
of the same family.
Table 7. Tree, shrub and grass species found in Dhone and Kalyandurg
Tree species Shrubs Grass species
Acacia leucophloes Carissa carandus Apluda aristata
A. sundra C. spinorum Cymbopogan coloratus
A. arabica Cassia auriculata Cynodon dactylon
Albizia amara Dodonia viscose Digitaria longifolia
A. lebbek Caparis hispida Imprata cylindrica
Azadirachta indica Randia dimmatorum Heteropogan contortus
Dalbergia sissoo Euphoria tirucalli Sehima nervosum
Ziziphys Zylopyalis
Morinda tinctoria
E. piverlia
Jatropha carcus
Soymidia febrifuga
Pterocarpus santalinus
Wrightia tinctonia
Delonixelata
Hardwickia binata
Feronia elephantum
Gyrocarpus jacquini
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