The Forest Act created hardships for the villagers in the following Ways:
(i) Cutting Wood for their houses, grazing their cattle, contacting fruits and roots, hunting and fishing became illegal.
(ii) People were now forced to steal wood from the forests, and if they were caught, they were at the mercy of the forest guards who would take bribes from them.
(iii) Women who collected fuelwood were especially worried.
(iv) It was common for police constables and forest to harass people by demanding free food them.

Modern adaptations of traditional rainwater harvesting method are being carried out in many parts of the country to conserve and store water. For example in Gendathur village in Mysore, Karnataka, nearly 200 households have installed the system of rainwater harvesting. Gendathur receives an annual precipitation of 1,000 mm, and with 80 per cent of collection efficiency and of about 10 fillings, every house can collect and use 50,000 litres of water annually. From the 20 houses, the net amount of rainrwater harvested annually comes to1,00,000 litres. Thus, the rainwater harvesting system is being carried out successfully in Gendathur which has earned the rare distinction of being rich in rainwater. In addition to Gendathur, tamil Nadu is the first and the only state in India which had made rooftop rainwater harvesting structure compulsory to all the houses across the state. There are legal provisions to punish the defaulters. Thus, modern adaptations of traditional rainwater harvesting methods are being carried out to conserve and store water. In Meghalaya, a 200-year-old system of tapping stream and spring water by using bamboo pipes, is prevalent. About 18-20 litres of water entres the bamboo pipe system, gets transported over hundreds of metres, and finally reduces to 20-80 drops per minute at the site of the plant.

(a) Water scarcity implies water-shortage in low rainfall regions or drought prone areas. It is related to availability of bad quality of water as well. For example, in Rajasthan we see women balancing many ‘Matkas'(earthen pots) used for collecting and storing water and travelling long distances to get water.
(b) The main causes of scarcity of water are mentioned below:
(1) Increase in population: The water scarcity is an outcome of large and growing population that needs more water for domestic use as well as to produce more food. This leads to over-exploitation of, water resources to expand irrigated areas and dry-season agriculture. More tub wells for irrigation leads to falling ground water levels, adversely affecting water availability.
(2) Intensive industrialisation: In post independent India, there has been intensive Industrialisation. More industries means need for more water and more power to run them. Thus to meet the requirement, energy is produced from hydroelectric power. Thus industrialisation has led to more consumption of water. In India, hydroelectric power contributes 22 per cent of the total electricity produced.
(3) Urbanisation: Multiplying urban centres with large and dense populations life-styles have not only added to water and energy requirements but have further aggravated the problem. People have their own groundwater pumping devices to meet their water needs. This leads to over-exploitation and depletion in the cities.
(4) Bad quality of water too leads to scarcity of water. There may be sufficient water in an area but it may be polluted by domestic and industrial wastes, chemicals, pesticides and fertilisers used in agriculture, thus, making it unsafe for human use.
(5) Unequal access to water among different social groups: Some time, the poor people in Jhuggi-Jhopri colonies may not get water for their use. The well-to-do people in-their colonies may get water. This policy of discrimination of unequal access to water leads to scarcity of water for poor people, particularly in metropolitan cities.