Which Indian initiative under the National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) aims to improve micro-climate resilience through community-led water harvesting in semi-arid zones?
- (a)Jal Urja Yojana
- (b)Climate Resilient Watershed Programme
- (c)Hariyali Mission
- (d)Jal Mitra Scheme
Answer
Why
Correct — B. The stem describes adaptation money spent on community-led water harvesting in semi-arid land.
That is watershed work: treating a whole catchment with check dams, farm ponds and bunds so that rain is held where it falls.
Option (b) is the only choice whose name describes that: a watershed programme built for climate resilience.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)Jal Urja Yojana — Jal Urja means water energy. The name points to power from water, not to harvesting rain across a watershed to build climate resilience in semi-arid zones.
- (c)Hariyali Mission — Hariyali is a 2003 Ministry of Rural Development scheme, not an NAFCC one. It really was a watershed programme, run through panchayats, but the NAFCC was set up only in August 2015.
- (d)Jal Mitra Scheme — Jal Mitra means friend of water. It reads as a volunteer's title and names no watershed programme or climate-resilience goal under the NAFCC.
Concept
Adaptation means adjusting to the effects of climate change, while mitigation means cutting the emissions that cause it.
The NAFCC is India's national fund for adaptation projects. Its projects include water harvesting for adaptation, as in Banswara district, Rajasthan, under the Mukhyamantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan.
A watershed is the land that drains to one stream or outlet. Treating it as one unit holds water and soil moisture in dry farmland.
Read this item by its description. The stem itself defines the programme: adaptation funding, community water harvesting and semi-arid zones. Those words describe a watershed approach, and option (b) is built on it.
NABARD's list of projects sanctioned under the NAFCC has none by exactly this name. It does include watershed and water-harvesting work, such as climate proofing of rainfed watersheds in Salem and Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu.
Key facts
- Climate change adaptation means adjusting to its effects, while mitigation means reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that drive it.
- A watershed is the area of land that drains into a common stream, river or outlet.
- NABARD's list of NAFCC projects includes water harvesting for climate change adaptation in Banswara district, Rajasthan, under the Mukhyamantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan.
- The NAFCC was set up in August 2015, with NABARD as its National Implementing Entity.
Study next
Common traps
- Striking out Hariyali because its name means greenery: it was a real watershed scheme. It is wrong here because it came from the Ministry of Rural Development in 2003, not from the NAFCC.
- Picking a name because it sounds like water: Jal Urja and Jal Mitra both carry 'jal', but neither names watershed work.
- Confusing adaptation with mitigation: building resilience to dry spells is adaptation, not cutting emissions.
The adaptation-versus-mitigation split is asked at 12 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.24, where sea walls and raised buildings are keyed as climate change adaptation.
Related PYQs
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