Watershed development is been in practice in India for more than two decades. Scientific studies and literature has been devising and revising guidelines for the implementation of the same. It suggests importance of popular participation in watershed development activities in making it successful. Over last three years Maharashtra has seen two major watershed development initiatives being launched pan Maharashtra. One by Government of Maharashtra and another by Paani Foundation viz. Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan and Water Cup respectively. Both these programs have been very vocal about people’s participation in implementation of it, but have reported some contradicting outputs. This research is a humble attempt to understand, when people participate, or do not, how it influences the output of WSD program in their village. It also attempts to understand how training and capacity building influences the outputs of WSD program implementation in their villages. It was found that people’s participation ensured that benefits of the WSD program are more distributed and not restricted to only a few privileged in the village. While training helped villagers develop scientific understanding of the nature of problem and gave them confidence that they can address their problem of their own.