A young woman of Rajasthan’s Bishnoi community, known for its beliefs associated with nature worship and wildlife conservation, turned her wedding into a unique event by filling the troughs dug up in agricultural fields with water for quenching the thirst of deer and blackbucks before the commencement of marriage rituals. Her initiative last week supported the community’s efforts to protect wild ungulates facing intense heat this summer.
Bishnoi farmers in Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts of northern Rajasthan have dug up about 70 troughs, many of them in their own agricultural fields, in a 60-square km area and filled them up with water for antelopes foraging in the plains of the region. The animals were earlier losing their lives by drowning while trying to drink water at the two major canals.
The Indira Gandhi Canal and 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 ended up drowning as the canal edges have 45-degree slopes that the animals were unable to climb back over.
About 30 deer were losing their lives every year while trying to drink water from the canals. If they approached water sources in villages, stray dogs pounced upon them. The crisis affected a population of about 10,000 deer and blackbucks with temperatures ranging between 40-45 degrees Centigrade.
The villagers started digging small troughs two years ago and lined them with plastic sheets to prevent loss of water through seepage. These troughs are filled with water and replenished every 10 days.
Shailja, 23, daughter of environmental activist Anil Bishnoi, went to the fields with her friends and relatives before her wedding at Pilibanga and filled several troughs with water. She appealed to the villagers to take care of wild ungulates and also to keep containers filled with water on rooftops for birds.
The bride also presented saplings to the guests at her wedding, and asked them to plant them when they returned to their native places. Shailja has been helping her father in his environment protection work and has acted in a Kalyan Seervi-directed under-production Hindi film, “Saako-363 Amrita Ki Khejadi”, based on the story of legendary Amrita Devi who had fought with the rulers to protect trees in her village.
Members of the Sri Jambheshwar Paryavaran Evum Jeevraksha Pradesh Sanstha, who were present on the occasion, praised Shailja’s initiative for providing drinking water to wild animals. Mr. Bishnoi, a recipient of the State-level Amrita Devi Environmental Award in 2009, said he had convinced the farmers of the region to dig waterholes and collected money for it.
The villagers who are closest to the troughs fill them with water, which is fetched from the canals or the village water supply scheme. The villages falling in Padampura and Raisinghnagar tehsils of Sriganganagar district and Pilibanga and Suratgarh tehsils of Hanumangarh district have been a part of the initiative.
