Blue City Jodhpur

March 19, 2022
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN Topics

Blue City Jodhpur

Subject: Geography

Section: Oceanography

Context- Jodhpur, the gateway to the Thar desert, is globally known as the ‘Blue City’ for the colour of its houses. Its entire character as a city on the edge of a great desert has changed due to abundance of water.

Concept-

Jodhpur, which used to conserve every drop of water, now has the highest coverage of tap water in Rajasthan, 97.4 per cent.
Jodhpur was known for its talabs (ponds), baoris and jhalaras (stepwells).
Earlier, everyone used to consume water from the baori. Each baori had a neem tree next to it. Neem leaves and seeds used to mix with the water, making it therapeutic.
However With the coming up of the Indira Gandhi canal, some water bodies have been abandoned, some are unused, some encroached upon and some reclaimed for ‘public purposes’.
Only two of Jodhpur’s 46 talabs — Ranisar and Padamsar — remain.
The introduction of canal water has caused the ground water table in Jodhpur to increase at the rate of one metre per year. The basements of shops in the inner city are full of excessive groundwater.

About Jodhpur:

Jodhpur is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
It is popularly known as the “Blue City” among people of Rajasthan and all over India.
It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State.
Jodhpur was historically the capital of the Kingdom of Marwar, which is now part of Rajasthan.
Jodhpur was founded in 1459 by Rao Jodha, a Rathore Rajput chieftain.
It had architectural features like courtyard-houses, carved stone façades, jharokhas or enclosed balconies, jaalis or latticed screens, meandering streets, open chowks or squares, community spaces and water structures in the core area to help lower high temperatures.

Traditional Water Conservation Systems in India:

Jhalaras (Rajasthan)	Jhalaras are typically rectangular-shaped stepwells that have tiered steps on three or four sides.
Bawari (Rajasthan)	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.