On a late November morning, the Purna River slips past Thugaon-Pimpri, its waters calm after months of giving. Along its banks, villagers gather with quiet resolve, preparing to build yet another check dam. The steady hum of an earthmover cuts through the stillness as it lifts sand and stone, shaping a barrier meant to hold the next monsoon’s bounty.

What appears to be a modest construction effort is, in fact, a story of resilience. Each dam is more than earth and rock — it is a promise of water security, a shield for crops, and a reflection of collective will. At the centre of this movement stands a single farmer whose determination has rallied his neighbours, showing how even small barriers can create deep reservoirs of hope.

In 2018–19, Vidarbha’s Amravati district faced one of its harshest droughts in recent memory. Erratic monsoons scorched fields, shrank wells, and left cotton, soybean, and pulse crops stunted.

Tankers became lifelines, but they could do little to ease the despair. Families battled debt and migration; women queued for hours at water points while men searched for work in distant towns.

For farmers who had nurtured orange orchards for decades, the drought was not just about lost crops — it meant the loss of continuity, identity, and hope.

“Even borewells sunk 800 feet deep had turned dry,” recalls Amol Langote, a 49-year-old citrus farmer from Thugaon-Pimpri, a semi-arid village in Vidarbha with close to 3,000 residents.

“Farmers began uprooting their trees in despair. It felt........

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