In a novel initiative, Bishnoi farmers in Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts of northern Rajasthan are providing drinking water to a large number of deer and blackbucks facing the intense heat this summer in the plains of the region.
The farmers have dug up about 70 troughs, many of them in their own agricultural fields, over a 60 sq. km. area, and filled them with water to quench the thirst of the wild ungulates. Deer were earlier dying by drowning while trying to drink water at the two major canals here.
The Indira Gandhi Canal and the Bhakra Canal irrigate the fields in the otherwise arid areas of the two districts. Blackbucks were earlier climbing up the canal banks, trying to drink the flowing water, but they drowned as the canal edges have 45-degree slopes and they could not climb back.
About 30 deer lose their lives every year while trying to drink water from the canals and if they approach the water sources in villages, stray dogs pounce upon them, Anil Bishnoi, who has led the initiative, said on Tuesday. The crisis has affected a population of 10,000 deer and blackbucks amid temperatures ranging between 40 and 45 degree Centigrade.
Mr. Bishnoi, 45, a farmer living in the Lakhasar village of Hanumangarh district, told The Hindu that the villagers had dug small troughs and lined them with plastic sheaths to prevent loss of water through seepage. These troughs are filled with water and replenished every 10 days.
₹ 2 lakh collected
Mr. Bishnoi, a recipient of the State-level Amrita Devi Environmental Award in 2009, has been working for the protection of environment and wildlife for the last 20 years. He said he had convinced the Bishnoi farmers of the region to dig water holes for deer, for which the community had collected about ₹ 2 lakh.
The water is fetched from the canals or the village water supply scheme.
The Bishnoi community of Rajasthan is known for its beliefs associated with nature worship and wildlife conservation.
Villages falling in the Padampura and Raisinghnagar tehsils of the Sriganganagar district, and the Pilibanga and Suratgarh tehsils of Hanumangarh district, have been covered by the initiative.
Jaipur based environmentalist Harsh Vardhan said it was commendable the villagers had come together to ensure that the deer do not die of thirst. “If the State government cannot support such an initiative, what else will it do,” he asked.
