Apartment complexes, gated societies boosting demand

Diviners have been seeing a steady flow of clients over the last decade. Ravi, who runs a borewell company in Bengaluru, attributes this to the rise in apartment complexes and gated communities. Every summer, half a dozen diviners travel from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh to cater to clients in apartment complexes in Bengaluru.

It is estimated that Bengaluru has about 60 teams of well-diggers who have been behind the 50,000 recharge wells dug until now for water conservation since 2006, according to Biome Environmental Solutions, a city-based design firm that has a focus on ecology, architecture and water. “The last two months alone have seen 3,600 recharge wells being dug in Bengaluru,” said water expert S. Vishwanath who works there.