‘Anmol Jeevan Abhiyan’
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‘Anmol Jeevan Abhiyan’
Subject : Schemes
Section : Environment
Context: The ‘Anmol Jeevan Abhiyan’ (Precious Life Campaign) launched in Barmer recently has encouraged village panchayats and owners of houses to make the structural addition of hand pumps and locked covers on tankas (associated with local deities) or sacred forest groves 10 km away from the village.
Traditional Water Conservation Systems in India:
| Jhalaras | Jhalaras are typically rectangular-shaped stepwells that have tiered steps on three or four sides in Rajasthan. |
| Bawari | Bawaris are unique stepwells that were once a part of the ancient networks of water storage in the cities of Rajasthan. |
| Taanka | Taanka is a traditional rainwater harvesting technique indigenous to the Thar desert region of Rajasthan. A Taanka is a cylindrical paved underground pit into which rainwater from rooftops, courtyards or artificially prepared catchments flows. |
| Ahar Pynes | Ahar Pynes are traditional floodwater harvesting systems indigenous to South Bihar. Ahars are reservoirs with embankments on three sides that are built at the end of diversion channels like pynes. Pynes are artificial rivulets led off from rivers to collect water in the ahars for irrigation in the dry months. Paddy cultivation in this relatively low rainfall area depends mostly on aharpynes. |
| PanamKeni | The Kuruma tribe (a native tribe of Wayanad, Kerala) uses a special type of well, called the panamkeni, to store water. Wooden cylinders are made by soaking the stems of toddy palms in water for a long time so that the core rots away until only the hard outer layer remains. These cylinders, four feet in diameter as well as depth, are then immersed in groundwater springs located in fields and forests. |
| Kund | A kund is a saucer-shaped catchment area that gently slope towards the central circular underground well. Its main purpose is to harvest rainwater for drinking. Kunds dot the sandier tracts of western Rajasthan and Gujarat. |
| Zing | Zings, found in Ladakh, are small tanks that collect melting glacier water. A network of guiding channels brings water from the glacier to the tank. |
| Kuhls | Kuhls are surface water channels found in the mountainous regions of Himachal Pradesh. |
| Zabo | The Zabo (meaning ‘impounding run-off’) system combines water conservation with forestry, agriculture and animal care. Practised in Nagaland, Zabo is also known as the Ruza system. Rainwater that falls on forested hilltops is collected by channels that deposit the run-off water in pond-like structures created on the terraced hillsides. |