ponds

A 70-acre forest, 5 crore trees, 13 ponds — and not a single rupee taken. This is the story of one man’s lifelong gift to nature.

On World Water Day, Gazala Paul, founder of Ahmedabad-based NGO Samerth, talks about how she helped 97 villages in Kutch fight a massive water crisis through a community-led initiative.

Called bavkhals, these age-old ponds once nurtured coastal wadis (orchards and farms) but had become filled with waste over the years. Until one man decided to breathe life into them.

In 1977, 17-year-old Laxman Singh was mocked by his fellow villagers who advised him to help his farmer father instead of wasting his time on the ‘frivolous idea’ of reviving ponds. Today, the village is probably the only one in Rajasthan that is self-sufficient in water!

From solar-powered sewerage to climate-resilient drainage, the first initiatives will come up in Chennai, Coimbatore, Rajapalayam, Trichy, Tirunelveli, and Vellore!

Allika is an initiative which not only does good for the environment, but empowers women as well!

In a region that's suffered water shortage for years, the efforts of a 82-year-old have helped his village with a supply of water even during droughts.

The 1,561 water bodies likely to be revived are completely or partly dried up, and most of them are no longer in use.

The villagers of Madhya Pradesh have started digging new ponds and desiliting old ones which are spread across 200 villages.