‘What can we do?’, ‘I am just one man’, ‘They should know their responsibilities’, ‘we are not aware of anything, we are just a small village’– we have heard, seen and spoken all of the above reluctant statements. When the issue is about the environment, the reasons are even sad. Tarapur, a village in Maharashtra stands opposite. ‘Tarapur Shrikrishna Talav’ pond is now likely to become the largest man-made pond in the whole state of Maharashtra. HOW? Read this inspiring story.
129 kilometers away from Maharashtra, Tarapur was alive as Maharashtra’s maiden industrial complex, an Industrial Estate. Since October 1969, Tarapur had become the hub for drug manufacturers, especially chemical manufacturers. Steel plants and a bunch of textile plants. Up to 2,558 acres were under the industrial handle. Of course, this made way to job opportunities for the youth. This curbed the skilled workers from migrating to cities since they had an opportunity right at their womb. However, the older generation still depended on farming to serve their purposes.
When the story is of 2,558 acres of huge land, repercussions were bound to happen. The Government of Maharashtra assigned 39 acres of revenue land to Garodia Salt Works (GSW) on a lease, to set up salt-pans without conducting Environment Impact Assessments. The government also seemed to ignore that the villagers were using water from the pond that was a part of the 39-acre allotment. The fresh land and water soon turned saline due to seawater intrusion. The land soon turned into a salt-hub along with the high tides of Arabian Sea. This made the land unfit for cultivation.
Fortunately, this difficult situation didn’t silence the people. The villagers collectively set out to reclaim their saline land. After a long legal battle, the villages grabbed the land from GSW in 1992 along with the support of the then local MLA and Tarapur Vegetable Growers Association. However, the land was still a wasteland of its salinity. After repeated efforts, the KLDC constructed an earthen bund in 2012. After continued sealing of the 393 acres of the reclaimed land, the villages created recharge bores within the salt-pan area to ensure the generation of sweet water.
The villagers approached for the support of Tarapur Lions Club who seek the guidance of experts to plunge into solving the barrier of breaches. They also approached KLDC to get the permission to assign repairing of the bund and build automatic gates of the weir watertight. After 4 months of persistent working from June 2017, the once tidal land turned to a pond brimming with water. Currently, the pond also invites stored rainwater to its base. The villagers own the success for holding 156 million liters of water in the pond that is assumed to benefit 5 villages with a sum population of 15,000 people.
Officially called Dedale-Kolavali Kharland Bund, the pond stores rainwater, birds like seagulls, ibises and herons have recently become frequent visitors to this pond.
If the collective consciousness of a small village can make such a huge positive transformation in the lives of 15,000 people, if the same sense of belonging towards one’s own environment is dedicated, then the world can be a place with harmony.