From 519 in 1976, depend has dropped to 251 now, whilst four major reservoirs have shrunk due to encroachment
Here’s a statistic that should worry each and every Gurugram resident. In the past 40 years, more than half the town’s 519 water our bodies have been encroached upon, or acquired for infrastructure building. The data has been taken from the first-of-its-kind find out about carried out by the district management in the Gurugram districts. As consistent with the newest revenue information, simplest 251 water our bodies recently survive in Gurugram, the place, in a now not too far-off past — consistent with the Survey of India information of 1976 — there were 519. The Record of Right, 1956, places the determine even higher, at 640 water our bodies. Surprisingly, out of the 81 villages in Gurugram tehsil, 73 still have water our bodies.
In the past, these water our bodies were a part of an ordinary water provide and irrigation machine. With over 100 nullahs, the town had a singular natural drainage machine. The 4 main water our bodies — Ghata (50 toes deep) Nathupur (30 toes deep), Chakkarpur (12 toes deep) and Jharsa (10 toes deep) — used to retailer rainwater and recharge groundwater, thereby preventing water-logging. The surplus would drift downstream, from these giant water our bodies to many smaller ones, through nullahs, serving the wishes of the inhabitants all through the 12 months.
The natural drainage and recharge machine of the area was once revived by the British, who built 118 test dams around these lakes — in Gurugram, Faridabad, Mewat and surrounding spaces — to keep watch over flooding during monsoon and to recharge groundwater. It served the area smartly, till the 1950s.
Today, the area has lost half of its water our bodies both due to encroachment of catchment spaces or of the entire lake mattress. For instance, catchment spaces of Ghata, Jharsa and Badshapur jheels have been encroached upon by land mafia or by public infrastructure projects, whilst non secular websites, group halls and illegal colonies have come up on former water our bodies in Choma, Gurugram village and Carterpuri.
Explaining how water our bodies and their catchment spaces were encroached upon, Kumar Shashwat of Development 2050, an NGO that works on water conservation, said, “Most of the water our bodies are seasonal and retain water just for Three-6 months of the 12 months. This gave a huge advantage now not simply to land mafia, but additionally government, to get plans for brand spanking new roads and structures sanctioned, as they might show the area as dry barren land during the dry season. The normal trend is to take over water our bodies from panchayats and grant permission to private developers to built townships over them. Even although government declare water doesn’t drift into these lakes any more, such activities disturb a space’s natural hydrology. Unfortunately, water our bodies are noticed as waste land by the folks in addition to government.”
Irrigation division officials also blamed encroachment for the yearly floods in the town during monsoon. “The town by no means witnessed flooding till 1998. It all began with the inter-links between natural drains/nullahs and water our bodies getting cut off. Earlier, we had dams, lakes and hundreds of nullahs. Rainwater used to drift into these and recharge groundwater. However, with these water our bodies and their natural channels encroached upon, they act as obstacles main to large flooding during monsoons, like Gurujam in 2016,” said an engineer on the irrigation division, soliciting for anonymity.
For a town that is predicated closely on groundwater, the prognosis is grim. Central Ground-Water Board (CGWB) has already categorized Gurugram as “overexploited”. The town is more likely to face main groundwater depletion if encroachment continues to consume into water our bodies.
Unfortunately, MCG’s 2015 promise, to restore 12 water our bodies inside six months at the foundation of feasibility, catchment house and practicality, stays on paper.
Here’s a statistic that should worry each and every Gurugram resident. In the past 40 years, more than half the town’s 519 water our bodies have been encroached upon, or acquired for infrastructure building. The data has been taken from the first-of-its-kind find out about carried out by the district management in the Gurugram districts. As consistent with the newest revenue information, simplest 251 water our bodies recently survive in Gurugram, the place, in a now not too far-off past — consistent with the Survey of India information of 1976 — there were 519. The Record of Right, 1956, places the determine even higher, at 640 water our bodies. Surprisingly, out of the 81 villages in Gurugram tehsil, 73 still have water our bodies.
In the past, these water our bodies were a part of an ordinary water provide and irrigation machine. With over 100 nullahs, the town had a singular natural drainage machine. The 4 main water our bodies — Ghata (50 toes deep) Nathupur (30 toes deep), Chakkarpur (12 toes deep) and Jharsa (10 toes deep) — used to retailer rainwater and recharge groundwater, thereby preventing water-logging. The surplus would drift downstream, from these giant water our bodies to many smaller ones, through nullahs, serving the wishes of the inhabitants all through the 12 months.
The natural drainage and recharge machine of the area was once revived by the British, who built 118 test dams around these lakes — in Gurugram, Faridabad, Mewat and surrounding spaces — to keep watch over flooding during monsoon and to recharge groundwater. It served the area smartly, till the 1950s.
Today, the area has lost half of its water our bodies both due to encroachment of catchment spaces or of the entire lake mattress. For instance, catchment spaces of Ghata, Jharsa and Badshapur jheels have been encroached upon by land mafia or by public infrastructure projects, whilst non secular websites, group halls and illegal colonies have come up on former water our bodies in Choma, Gurugram village and Carterpuri.
Explaining how water our bodies and their catchment spaces were encroached upon, Kumar Shashwat of Development 2050, an NGO that works on water conservation, said, “Most of the water our bodies are seasonal and retain water just for Three-6 months of the 12 months. This gave a huge advantage now not simply to land mafia, but additionally government, to get plans for brand spanking new roads and structures sanctioned, as they might show the area as dry barren land during the dry season. The normal trend is to take over water our bodies from panchayats and grant permission to private developers to built townships over them. Even although government declare water doesn’t drift into these lakes any more, such activities disturb a space’s natural hydrology. Unfortunately, water our bodies are noticed as waste land by the folks in addition to government.”
Irrigation division officials also blamed encroachment for the yearly floods in the town during monsoon. “The town by no means witnessed flooding till 1998. It all began with the inter-links between natural drains/nullahs and water our bodies getting cut off. Earlier, we had dams, lakes and hundreds of nullahs. Rainwater used to drift into these and recharge groundwater. However, with these water our bodies and their natural channels encroached upon, they act as obstacles main to large flooding during monsoons, like Gurujam in 2016,” said an engineer on the irrigation division, soliciting for anonymity.
For a town that is predicated closely on groundwater, the prognosis is grim. Central Ground-Water Board (CGWB) has already categorized Gurugram as “overexploited”. The town is more likely to face main groundwater depletion if encroachment continues to consume into water our bodies.
Unfortunately, MCG’s 2015 promise, to restore 12 water our bodies inside six months at the foundation of feasibility, catchment house and practicality, stays on paper.
How half of Gurugram’s water bodies vanished in 40 years
![How half of Gurugram’s water bodies vanished in 40 years]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
June 14, 2018
Rating:
