With more than half of the water spread area at Gunderipallam Reservoir covered with silt, farmers wanted the reservoir to be desilted so that stored water could be used for irrigation.
The reservoir, with a storage capacity of 1.08 tmc, was constructed at the foothills of Gundri Hills at Gobichettipalayam block in 1978 to irrigate 2,498 acre in Kongarpalayam, Vinobanagar, Vaniputhur, Kavundampalayam and Arasankottai villages. While 1,619 acre gets water from the left canal, 879 acre gets water from the reservoir’s right canal. The length of the earthen reservoir is 722 metre while its water spread area is 56.26 hectare and catchment area is 72.23 sq km. Since the reservoir is located in the forest area, heavy rain in the hills bring copious water to reservoir as it reaches its maximum storage level in a few days.
“In its 41 year history, the silt was not removed even once”, said N. Subramanian, president of the Gunderipallam Pasana Sangam who have been demanding the district administration to desilt the reservoir for the past 15 years.
The reservoir is the second biggest reservoir next to Bhavani Sagar in the district. During rainy season, the surplus water is let out which enters River Bhavani. “Earlier, the water is used for carrying out irrigation for over 70 days, but now we cannot depend fully on the reservoir and had to depend on borewells”, he added. Currently, water was released for irrigation for 40 days and farmers had cultivated banana, sugarcane, tapioca, maize and onion in the ayacut areas.
Farmers said that water in the reservoir helps recharge of groundwater of wells and borewells in 15 km radius and raised the issue during the grievance meeting held at Gobichettipalayam recently. It was disclosed during the meeting that one-third of the water spread area comes under the control of forest department and approval is needed. Hence, the issue was taken up with the Public Works Department who had taken up the issue with the forest department.
Senior officials at the Sathyamangalam Forest Division told The Hindu that currently the dam has water and desilting works could be taken up only after four months when the dam goes dry.
