A watershed can be defined as the drainage basin  or catchment area of a particular stream or river. Simply put, it refers to the area from where the water to a particular drainage system, like a river or stream, comes from.

    People and their environment are interdependent. Any change in the surrounding environment directly affects the people living therein. A degraded environment results in a degraded quality of life of the people. Thus efforts to reduce poverty and improve the standard of living of the people must aim at improving the environment they live in. 
The environment does not recognize people determined administrative  boundaries. A watershed provides a natural environmental unit for planning a developmental initiative.

    Watershed development refers to the conservation, regeneration and the judicious use of all the resources - natural (land, water, plants, animals) and human - within a particular watershed. Watershed management tries to bring about the best possible balance in the environment between natural resources on the one side, and human and other living beings  on  the  other. 

• Human Resource Development (Community Development)
• Soil and Land Management
• Water Management
• Crop Management
• Afforestation
• Pasture/Fodder Development
• Livestock Management
• Rural Energy Management
• Farm and non-farm value addition activities

All these components are interdependent and interactive.

WHY PEOPLE'S PARTICIPATION ? 

    The environment is a living space on which the human community living within that area depends on for its livelihood. When the economic condition of a community deteriorates it leads to over-exploitation and degradation of natural resources which, in turn, further exacerbates poverty. It is thus necessary for people to see the relationship between their poverty and the degraded environment they live in.

    Thus, just as human beings and their activities are the cause of environmental destruction,  it is only they who can restore to health the ruined environment. Hence there can be no sustainable natural resources management unless it involves the participation of all the inhabitants of the concerned environment / area in an active manner.