Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR), dotted with half a dozen dams, is left with just three to four feet of water. Nawabandh is one such which is close to the main gate of the national park Betla. Here water is very little admits Betla forest ranger Nathuni Singh.
Similarly a huge chunk of Madhuchuan is dry except one small portion of it where there is the perennial water source. Futuwabandh is a total dry. So are the Bairya dam, Baiga Panee, Murkattichuan, Shiv nullah, Bagh Dubuwa.
Bagh Dubuwa is left with just 12 inches of water. Balahee Kusum water body is water less. The list of drying up of water body is counting with every passing day in this tiger reserve.
However tanker water is being filled in the plate like troughs in this tiger reserve. The Pioneer which took a tour of this tiger reserve on Sunday found water in such water bodies on the verge of extinction. A few labourers were building a new plate like trough in this tiger reserve under 44 degree Celsius sunbeams.
Ranger Nathuni Singh pins all hope on Kamaldah jheel and says the water body will not dry up even in this summer. Ranger’s another hope is Kanoudhi water body which has now left with 4 to 5 feet of water.
However the ranger believes if a high cost and well designed concrete dam is built at Bagh Jhopri then there will be no any problem of water for wild life in this Betla range.
DS Srivastava member of the state wild life board Jharkhand too nodded in affirmation with what the Betla ranger said about Bagh Jhopri. Srivastava’s worries are for the health of PTR’s wild animals that drink the same water which is being consumed by the cattle of the farmers.
Srivastava said farmers’ cattle also bring many kinds of infections which they pour in the same water body. He said water for PTR’s wild life is being encroached upon and usurped by the farmers’ cattle and wanted latehar civil administration to ensure water facility for the cattle of the farmers in the villages falling in the contiguity of the PTR.
Srivastava asked the PTR officials to go for deepening of all dry up water bodies as he hoped this would refresh and revive the dead ones sooner.