New Delhi, Friday, August 17, The forest department of the Gir National Park is finding it hard in refilling some 500 artificial ponds meant for keeping the animals quenched as the ground water level has dropped due to poor rain. The ground water was being extracted to provide water to the animals here. With the help of wind and solar power, 55 ponds were used to fill automatically but now as the water level is dropping fast as the Gir region has received only 10 percent of the rainwater what it used to receive during a normal monsoon.
In the normal course, filling of the artificial waterholes in and around Gir stops by the 15th of June every year, unless it is required in summer. But nearly after a decade, the authorities are being forced to fill these ponds in August. The water situation deteriorated when seven rivers passing through the sanctuary , Hiran, Saraswati, Datardi, Shingoda, Machhundri, Ghodavadi, and Raval started drying up.
The waterholes are being filled twice a day and the department may have to provide more supply to these waterholes. As a result a water tanker is making eight to ten trips a day to fulfill the demand. With natural water getting exhausted, the forest department will have to get water from distant places. The forest department may have to call in more tankers to meet the demand.
The Gir National Park is famous for the Asiatic lion. Along with it there are leopards, spotted deer, Nilgais, wild boars, and thousands of bird species and various reptiles present in the sanctuary.
