Watershed development programmes carried out in different agroclimatic conditions in India resulted in beneficial impact in terms of productivity enhancement and natural resources conservation, but less attention paid to institutional and participatory aspects. This paper explored the performance of various institutions regarding execution of watershed development programmes in semi-arid region of India. Recorded observations from documents maintained at watershed level and information collected through primary survey as well as focus group discussion with different types of stakeholders were used for analysis. The results indicated lacunae in participatory aspects during programme implementation process like monitoring activities, management of common property resources and equity. Gap in linkages and differential level of performance of various watershed level functionaries indicates the necessity for corrections in the structures and linkages pattern for sustainability of the infrastructure and institutions. The study also showed unequal priorities by the implementing agencies towards institutions, land and water resources development, production enhancement activities and fodder resources development as well as rationalities of technical, economic, financial, political and social aspects among the watersheds. (c) 2020 International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation and China Water and Power Press. Production and Hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).