There is a big discussion of a pond located in a village in Durg district of Chhattisgarh. This pond was built 150 years ago and since then it has never dried. It is no less than a lifeline for the villagers during the scorching summer season. This pond located in Kandarka village, about 25 km from Durg city, is known by the name of ‘Bada Talab’. This pond helps people in daily water needs and irrigation for years. When other ponds and resources of the region dry up during the summer season, it is an important source of water for six nearby villages.
What is the story of this pond?
Durg Lok Sabha member Vijay Baghel also said that the pond never drought and a plan will be prepared for its protection and revival. Local resident Jeevan Lal told PTI that his maternal grandfather’s great -grandfather Gurmini Gautia, who was a landlord at that time, built the pond for his wife.
He said that 150 years ago there was a shortage of water in Kandarka and the local people had to go to nearby villages to meet their water needs. Gautia’s wife had to walk on another village 2 km away to bathe. Lal said that one day when she was taking a shower, some villagers laughed at her and said that even a landlord cannot arrange water for his wife in his village. She immediately returned to her village and had mud on her head.
Wife’s promise and water discovery
Seeing his wife in such a condition, the zamindar asked the reason. She narrated the incident and told her husband that she returned after taking an incomplete bath. The zamindar’s wife was so hurt by the incident that she decided not to bathe until the pond is built in her village. Jeevan Lal said that to fulfill his wife’s wish, the zamindar planned to build a pond, but the problem was where to dug it because there was no underground water source in the village.
It is said that God helps those who help themselves. After a few days of struggle, the zamindar saw soil and grass on some cattle missing for two-three days in the village. He thought that when there is no source of water in the village, how did the soil and grass be planted on the body of the cattle. The next day, when Gautia and other villagers chased some cattle, they reached a place where there was grass and mud. Later, the same place was dug and found a small source of water.
Never dries up pond
Jeevan Lal further explained that before starting the work of digging the pond, the zamindar persuaded his wife to use the same small water source until the entire reservoir goes on his own. Lal said that about 100 laborers were called from outside to dig the pond from axes and shovels and the work lasted for five months.
Since then, this pond remains a continuous source of water for about half a dozen villages in the area as it never dries up. Another local resident Narottam Pal also said that the pond never drought and it helps in irrigation of fields in Kandar and adjoining villages, especially when other water sources dry up during the summer season.
He further said that the villagers have been protecting this pond for many years and they have not allowed encroachments around it. When the Durg Lok Sabha member Vijay Baghel was approached, he told PTI that the pond, which is believed to be more than a century, is never drought and a plan will be prepared for its protection and revival in future. Baghel further said that protection of ponds is necessary to maintain biodiversity and recharge the ground water level.