Locals in Chipli Lingadahalli village in Sagar Taluk of Karnataka's Shivamogga district, claim that they have restored the centuries-old tanks in the village without taking monetary assistance from the government.
According to villagers, wild mals come to these tanks to drink water in summers.
As per the villagers, the village had centuries-old tanks called Bangaramma and Anesondilu, which had disappeared completely following which locals in the year 2017 decided to rejuvenate them. Now after three years, the tanks were restored and filled with maximum water.
Akhilesh Chipli, a villager and an environmentalist, speaking to said: "We have been working on desilting the tanks for three years. One is Anesondilu tank that used to store 25 thousand litres of water. After rejuvenation, its capacity reached 65 lakh litres."
"The Bangaramma tank, which is almost 600-years old and had the capacity of storing 10 lakh liters, after rejuvenation, it filled up to 2 crore litres of water. We have been watching the mals like Gaurs and barking deer coming to quench their thirst from these tanks in the summers. In a climate change scenario everyone should adopt the goal to rejuvenate water bodies," he added.
Chipli further said, "We had discussed the rejuvenation of these tanks with 'Waterman of Karnataka' Shivananda Kalave and approached those who could fund the project. In the initial stage we had to struggle a lot to start the work but due to various reasons the work on the project had to be discontinued for a while. Later Karnataka Bank extended help and the project was resumed."
The government estimated the cost of desilting the tanks to Rs 35 lakhs, but we have finished it in a budget of Rs 22 lakhs, he concluded.
( With inputs from ANI )
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