Jaipur, May 17 (IANS) Major wildlife reserves and parks in Rajasthan are facing acute water shortage this summer. Animal rights activists say the measures adopted by the state government are few and even a plan to resuscitate the famous Bharatpur bird sanctuary relies on floodwaters.
With temperatures soaring, several small water reservoirs have become parched while others are on the brink of drying up.
Rajasthan is one of the few states that can boast of two tiger projects, a bird sanctuary and 25 wildlife sanctuaries, besides 32 closed areas. These protected areas offer great eco-tourism opportunities for both domestic and foreign tourists.
While the forest department claims to have put a plan in place for proper water supply through tankers and tube wells, animal rights activists are not convinced.
“Yes, there is a water crisis in almost all the major wildlife parks and sanctuaries of the state. We are working on a plan to tackle the situation and we have already started supplying water in these areas through tankers,” a forest department official said.
Animal rights groups say the situation is really bad.
“Water by tankers can ease the crisis only a little bit. The animals need water not only for drinking but also for playing and bathing. The state government should have tried to make arrangements earlier and in a much better way so that these wild animals do not suffer,” Sandeep Jain, former member, Animal Welfare Board of India said.
Animal rights groups claim that the Sariska tiger reserve is facing a severe drinking water crisis. Except for areas like Pandupol, Kalighati and Kankwadi fort, there are hardly any water reservoirs left in the entire forest area.
Wildlife conservationists fear that tiger prey species like sambar, nilgai and wild pig might be poached if they venture out of the park in search of water.
“The story in the Ranthambore national park is somewhat better as some pockets of water are still available there. However, there are no water arrangements in the four km-stretch from Singhdwar to Sultanpur and areas from Tamba Khan, Bhutkhora, Kachida, Lakadha and Bairda among others have no water reservoirs left in the area,” Naresh Kadyan, chairman, People for Animals Haryana told IANS.
Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985, the Keoladeo Bird sanctuary in Bharatpur has also been facing a water crisis due to two droughts in the last five years.
The state government has now decided to lay a 16 km pipeline from Goverdhan drain to supply 350 million cubic feet (MCFT) of floodwaters to Keoladeo Ghana, as the Bharatpur sanctuary is called.
Costing Rs.600 million, the project will be funded by a loan from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). The pipeline would be laid by the water resource department and later maintained by the forest department.
“About 350 MCFT floodwaters from the Yamuna river go to Uttar Pradesh through the Goverdhan drain. A 16-km water pipeline would be laid to bring this water to the Ghana sanctuary,” Rajasthan’s principal water resource secretary S.N. Thanvi said.
He added that over 500 MCFT water was required annually by wildlife in the Keoladeo sanctuary.
Driven by water scarcity, the bird, which used to attract over 300 species of birds earlier, wears a deserted look.
A large part of the water bodies in the sanctuary have turned into dry land. The entire area had been receiving scanty rainfall for the last couple of years but things turned miserable last year.
Bharatpur district on an average receives 673 mm of rainfall, but in the last monsoon the district got around 215 mm of rainfall.
(Anil Sharma can be contacted at [email protected])