Sonda, Uttara Kannada: While lakes in most cities are turning into drains and even disappearing, the villages and temples in Uttar Kannada district have shown how all that can be prevented.
Eighty four families in Jigale Mane village were able to revive three lakes in their village in the last five years and their success story is now becoming a model for many villages in Uttar Kannada.
The villagers were having tough time when the lake got dried up due to accumulation of silt and blockages in Raja Kaluves (large drains) which use to feed the lake.
The villagers, who got government aid of Rs 9 lakh for their village lake, ensured that they worked with the government team. They stood by the lake works and ensured that 50,000 cubic feet silt was removed from the Jigale Mane lake which covers an extent of 10 acres.
The villagers did not stop there. They took up rejuvenation of two more tanks in the vicinity, Anegundi and Sanna Anegundi tank.
Each family was made to provide two workers under the government scheme and they revived the lake for just Rs 5.5 lakh.
Similarly the other lake was rejuvenated by getting money under the Village Forest Committee. There are also three temples in Sonda which have lakes around them and all of them were revived by villagers.
“Unlike in urban areas the governments do not respond to our basic needs swiftly. Hence we often try to work around the natural resources that are available near our villages.
For long there was not much help. We decided to form an association kere balakedara sangha (lake users association) and then we took up the fight at many levels of the government machinery.
We worked along with the government engineers and workers to ensure that there is transparency in rebuilding the water body and irrigation channels to our farms,” recalled H. Kannappa, the president of Sangha.
The villagers from Jigale Mane were honoured here at the inaugural day of three-day long national seminar on lakes – Lake Symposium by the Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar and pontiff of Swarnavalli math in Sonda, Gangadharendra Saraswathi swami.
Lake Symposium is organized biannually by the Indian Institute of Science, and this is the first time the symposium is organized outside Bengaluru.
New Bird Sanctuary
The Mundige Kere near Sonda in Sirsi will soon be declared as the Bird Conservation Reserve. The lake which was recently rejuvenated attracts large numbers of egrets besides other wetland birds.
This lake was built by Sonda King Arasappa Naik in 16th century has a thick growth of long grass all around, making it a preferred nesting site for the birds. Spread over 4.14 acres it will soon be declared as the bird sanctuary, thanks to the efforts of local community members and Swami of Swarnavalli math.
