PATNA: Even as the environmentalists world over have been emphasizing upon the need of conserving water resources for meeting the growing demand, more than 70% water bodies in Bihar have surprisingly been allowed to die an unnatural death during the last three decades.There were more than 2.50 lakh ponds in the state till the late 1980s, but the number has reportedly declined to less than 90,000, informed sources said. Thousands of ponds, which are essential to store rainwater during the eight dry months of the year, have disappeared during the period owing to the alleged government apathy and increasing real estate activities. Most of the ponds and lakes have been encroached upon by the vested interests for construction purposes, they alleged.Using the post-monsoon satellite data, scientists have identified as many as 27,931 water bodies having area above 0.5 hectares in the state. However, only 14% of them are perennial. Small water bodies are mostly seasonal and contribute very little to the sustainable water resource development, environmentalist Mehta Nagendra Singh said.“The distribution of water bodies varies from one district to the other. The perennial water bodies are maximum in Madhubani (902), followed by East Champaran (267) and Darbhanga (250). Large water bodies with area more than 1000 hectares are seen in only Samastipur , Vaishali and Patna districts and 60% of these are seasonal. Satellite imageries also reveal that the seasonal water bodies are either utilized for agriculture or they are weed-infested after monsoon. Ten water bodies are in the range of 500 to 1000 hectares area, with total maximum water spread area of 7440 hectares and 50% of these are seasonal in nature,” Singh added.In 2016, the state revenue and land reforms department had undertaken a project to make all water bodies encroachment-free and renovate them so that they are fit for rainwater harvesting and water conservation. It had also directed the officials concerned to lodge cases against those who have encroached upon ponds, lakes and rivers in the state. Under the water bodies' conservation project, which is part of the disaster risk reduction road map (2015-30) of the state government, the department was first supposed to identify all community water bodies in the state and then remove encroachments, if any. Finally, all water bodies were to be renovated under various schemes of the government and made fit to conserve water. This was also supposed to help in groundwater conservation, the department sources said.However, the ground reality hasn’t changed much. Hundreds of ponds have disappeared in Patna, Gaya, Darbhanga, Motihari, Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur districts in recent years and many others are encroached upon, asserted Nalanda Open University pro-vice-chancellor Kriteshwar Prasad.Even in Patna, hundreds of ponds have disappeared in the last four decades. The Patna branch of All India Institute of Medical Sciences was constructed after filling in 35 acres of lakes. Netaji Subhas Park in the southeast corner of Gandhi Maidan, Indira Gandhi Planetarium near Kotwali, Vaishali Cinema below Rajendra Nagar overbridge, A-G office near Sultan Palace and the entire Saidpur complex of Patna University are all sites of “dead” water bodies, Prasad said.“There were nearly 1,000 lakes in Patna, but their numbers have come down to a little over 200. Several residential localities have been developed after big ponds were filled,” said Geological Survey of India retired director N Dayal. “Patna’s ponds, including Kachchi Talaab, Sachivalay Talaab, Manikchand Talaab and Adalatgannj Talaab may not survive for long,” he added.

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