At first glance, the whole area appears to be a giant open drainage or garbage dumping yard with waste all over the place. It is literally impossible to believe that this is actually a historical and prominent monument of the city. In fact, the history of ancient Bijapur cannot be read without mentioning this monument, the Taj Bawadi. This ancient storage tank built in 1620 by Ibrahim Adil Shah, one of the emperors of the great Adil Shahi dynasty, for providing water facility to the city.
This magnificent structure which was once pride of the city’s history, is now turning into an open lavatory of slum dwellers and garbage dumping yard for people.
An intriguing aspect of the ancient structure is that even today, no one has been able to find out its exact depth .
The tank, which is over 200 square feet wide, was reportedly supplying drinking water till a few decades ago, but over time, people began throwing waste and the water turned unfit for consumption.
The immersion of Ganesh idols is believed to be one of the prominent reasons for water getting polluted. Every year, despite local civic authorities arranging for mobile immersion tanks, majority of the people prefer to immerse the idols only in this tank.
In the past, some volunteers have tried to clear the Bawadi, however it turned out to be temporary.
“What is required is the concrete solution such as removing silt from the Bawadi, but it is critical for the authorities to first stop dumping of waste and immersion of idols. Else this ancient pride of the city would no longer be so,” said Peter Alexander, a social activist. When contacted, Zahurahmed Balsing, Chairman, District Wakf Advisory Committee, said that the in the absence of funds, the wakf was unable to take up any work such as fencing the Bawadi.
Meanwhile, the former Mayor, Sajjadepeeran Mushrif, said that during his tenure, he had got Rs. 13 lakh granted for cleaning and fencing, however the funds were yet to be utilised.
It supplied drinking water to the city till
a few decades ago
