With a mission to conserve the precious soil and water natural resources by using technologies, in association with people, the Govt. of India, initiated watershed programs. One such watershed in Mysore district was selected for evaluation under Govt. funding during 2011-12. The study was conducted with objectives to assess the extent of soil and water conservation physical structures were achieved against the set target, status of forest and horticulture plantations survivability and extent of people’s involvement in the watershed activities. The study found that though the watershed Dept., had achieved the progress with respect to achieving the target of completing the physical structures of soil and conservation, the forestry and horticulture plants, survivability in the watershed area was 70% and 80% respectively, which requires protection and maintenance through people’s participation. The extent of people involvement, in the watershed programs was low (64%), as they were not fully motivated, to have sense of belonging and owning it and owe to preserve and undertake developmental activities with Govt., Private and NGOs; collaboration. This requires, the human resource developmental initiatives of capacity building activities involving all the stake holders, to reap the fruits of the watershed activities to the people and sustainable development and restoring the ecology.

Keyword: Conservation structures; Forest plantation; Horticulture plants; Focus group discussions; Peoples participation; Sustenance of livelihoods;