SC order on water bodies ignored as Gaya rapidly loses water bodies

Gaya: All talks of restoring and reclaiming the district’s nearly 800 extinct water bodies have turned out to be mere rhetoric, with little action on the ground. Worse, even the surviving water bodies are under threat, as they are increasingly being eyed by the real estate mafia and other vested interests.In Jan 2011, the Supreme Court had ordered a countrywide restoration and reclamation of water bodies for protection of environment and allied reasons. In the light of the SC order, C Ashok Vardhan, then principal secretary, state revenue and land reforms department, issued a notification for the compliance of the SC order on water bodies.As per 1914 cadastral survey records, there were 1,731 water bodies in the district having an area of one acre or more.

Besides the big-sized water bodies, there were 36,000 ground wells, both public and private.According to informed estimates, more than 50% of the water bodies, mostly ponds, have now become extinct. The condition of wells is worse as nearly 75% of the wells simply do not exist.On account of significant shrinkage in the Rasalpur Talab, a few years back, Ramon Magsaysay Award winner water activist Rajendra Singh visited Gaya in an effort to focus on the condition of water bodies, particularly of the Talab.

Originally spread over 10 acres, the Rasalpur Talab has shrunk to only about six acres. Singh even offered to adopt the Rasalpur Talab.The most surprising aspect is that at least in one particular case, the govt itself got the divisional commissioner’s office constructed on plot number 13392, which according to the 1914 survey was a pond called North Dighi Talab.Based on this fact, RTI activist Brijnandan Pathak, a few years back petitioned the then divisional commissioner Jitendra Srivastava for the demolition of his office premises.The divisional commissioner subsequently dismissed the petition in his quasi judicial capacity on the ground that the petitioner did not have the locus standi in the matter.Though water bodies throughout the district have faced extinction on account of encroachments and non-maintenance, the situation is worse in the Gaya Municipal Corporation area where water bodies like Kathokar Talab, north Dighi Talab, Baniya Pokhar, Gangti Pokhar and Koili Pokhar etc have become extinct and over the years concrete structures have replaced these former water bodies.In 2019, the then district magistrate Abhishek Singh tasked the Gaya Municipal Corporation to take effective steps for the restoration of extinct water bodies and proper maintenance of the surviving few within the Gaya municipal area.According to Rai Madan Kishore, special secretary (retd), govt of Bihar, a very strong political and administrative will was required to restore the extinct water bodies. At least effective steps should be taken to protect and preserve the surviving water bodies, said Kishore.Deputy development commissioner Shailesh Kumar Das was not available to give an update on the steps being taken for the compliance of the SC order on the restoration of water bodies.