Eighty percent of drinking water supply in rural villages of the IHR is spring based. However, a vast majority of these springs are becoming seasonal or have dried up due to the impacts of climate change, changes in land use patterns, deforestation, etc. Drinking water availability issues in the region are rapidly assuming alarming proportions. The major burden falls on women who have to fetch water by walking several kilometers every day. Scarcity of water along with poverty and limited options for alternative livelihoods will further reduce the resilience and vulnerability of the people to cope with extreme climatic events. A specific way forward to this is to work more directly with natural processes to secure the regeneration of groundwater sources at the local level. Working at a watershed scale will result in a holistic approach to managing water resources as each of these hydrologically-defined geographic areas are unique in physiography, ecology, climate, water bodies, water quality and land use. Hence, the approach will facilitate identifying and solving problems in a better way. Spring recharge will result in water and food security, more biomass production, better livelihoods and improved quality of life. Involvement and capacity building of communities specially women in maintenance of springs will make them more resilient to climate change. The proposed project is addressing the Broad Thematic Areas of Water Resources Management and Livelihood Options. The major thrust area is "Water security through rejuvenation of springs and catchments". The focus area of action will be in 8 watersheds (4 in Nagaland, 2 in Uttarakhand and 2 in Arunachal Pradesh).These are in districts Wokha, Mokokchung, Phek & Zunheboto in Nagaland; Almora & Pauri in Uttarakhand and Tawang and West Kameng in Arunachal Pradesh. The area of the selected watersheds in these districts roughly ranges from 250 - 1500 ha. These watersheds are in the most water scarce zones of the selected districts and require immediate interventions for spring recharge. The watersheds have predominance of forest and agricultural land. However, they are different from each other in terms of geological formations, gradient, land use, area, etc. The focus of our actions in these watersheds would be on increasing spring discharge and promoting sustainable and equitable use of the augmented groundwater for maintaining water security and enhancing agriculture based livelihoods. Community based spring recharge interventions will result in significant improvement in water security of the targeted marginalized village communities. It will lead to socioeconomical and technological impacts. The initiative will be led by People's Science Institute (PSI) Dehradun, in partnership with the Land Resources Department, Government of Nagaland, IIT Roorkee, WWF-India and Arghyam, Bengaluru. The proponent has experience in working on micro watersheds. Along with its project partners it has implemented community based springshed development projects based on hydrogeological studies involving the local communities in the IHR. This has substantially enhanced water availability and quality in the selected villages. Bringing about the desired outputs and measurable impacts will require minimum 3 years duration and a financial support of around 4 crore under NMHS.