Forest department to fill up 40 water tanks for animals

PUNE: The forest department of Baramati taluka has arranged to refill 40 water tanks located in different forest patches with 1 to 2,000 litres of water every week. These tanks were built for the water needs of wild animals, especially the chinkara, found in the drought-prone area, during summer.
Range forest officer of Baramati taluka Mohan Dhere said as many as 42 villages are spread across the 6,435 hectares of land."This area is interspersed with small patches of forest land, each ranging from 30 hectares to 200 hectares. It is in such patches that one finds these tanks, which have been created by installing barriers in empty nullahs," he said.
The number of tanks have increased since 2000, but except for the rainy and summer season, they remain dry for the rest of the year.
Supa, Jogwadi, Loni Bapkar, Karanje, Pandare, Dandwadi, Baburdi and Korhale are some dry lands where these tanks have been constructed. They were built in view of the 2,000-strong chinkara population in the area, with the aim to meet their water requirements. "The tanks came up wherever the number of chinkara was felt to be increasing. Though these animals are known to survive in drought-prone areas, it was noticed that they would cross roads in search of food and water. They would be run over by vehicles and as many as 10-20 deer would die annually. We wanted to minimise such accidents and the migration of the deer by building water tanks," said Dhere.
Dhere said that about 1 to 2,000 litres of water is let into the tanks through tankers once or twice a week which will continue till the start of the monsoon. "Baramati taluka has wolves, foxes, hyenas and peacocks. The tanks would cater to these animals as well. The average rainfall in Baramati taluka is 350 mm, and most of the agricultural land is irrigated by canals. Thus, animals in wet areas along the canal do not have to deal with water scarcity during summers. The wild animals in the dry areas of the taluka often face shortage," he said.
Recently, the forest department had undertaken repairs of these tanks as many of them had begun to wear out. "At the end of the monsoon, these tanks dry up and weather down due to continuous exposure to sunlight. They develop cracks, leading to increased percolation and leakage. We thus had 10-15 tanks repaired, putting polythene sheets in some of them to protect their base and walls from atmospheric influences," said Dhere.