An old reservoir, built by the British near the Marlimund Lake, has now almost completely vanished due to encroachments on the reservoir bed.
As a result, the more than 300 families living nearby, who used to be able to draw water from their wells, now complain that the water tables have dropped and that their wells have gone dry this summer.
The reservoir, known formerly as Snodon Reservoir, was once one-tenth the size of the 65 acre Marlimund Lake, and used to be a source of drinking water for town residents, said Venugopal Dharmalingam, the director of the Nilgiri Documentation Center.
With residential buildings being built on the reservoir bed, and encroachments mushrooming over the last few decades, the water body has all but vanished, with only some bunds, outlet pipes and a few other remnants left of the reservoir.
With the failure of the monsoons last year, most residents in the area where the reservoir was once located are facing a severe water crisis, with many wells going dry.
B. Philomena, a resident of Dr. Baswaya Nagar, who has been living in the area for more than 20 years, said that a well that was dug near her home has gone completely dry for the first time. “We have never faced such a water crisis in the past, and finding water for everyday needs remains a difficult task,” she said.
P. Vijayakumari, a housewife residing in Dr. Baswaya Nagar in Ward Number 3 of the Udhagamandalam Municipality, said that the more than 300 families residing in the area receive water from the municipality only once in every 10 days.
Residents here said that the reservoir stopped holding any water more than a decade ago, and added that some farmers still draw water from borewells dug into the bed of the reservoir.
Mr. Venugopal Dharmalingam lamented the continued disappearance of lakes and water bodies in the Nilgiris.
“When the British first came to the Nilgiris, they compared it with the great lake districts found back home, but the scale of development we have witnessed over the last 70 years has seen most water bodies disappear,” he said, before stating that such unfettered development was “inviting disaster” to the hill town.
