SOMNATH PROJECT ... contd
From 1994 onwards, the project has also spread to about 27 villages in the vicinity of Somnath. This marks a major point of departure in the work of the MSS in the direction of a broader rural development intervention. Every 6 months youth from these villages are provided training at Somnath on watershed development and various non-farm activities. They then begin to act as pressure points for government agencies elected people's representative to start programmes in their own villages. 416 hectares of land have recently been earmarked by government for the Somnath project in the adjacent forest adjacent for them to initiate Joint Forest Management programmes.