After many years of dreading the monsoon, residents of the villages along the Tarapur-Boisar Road breathed easy this year; even though they, like Mumbai — 129 km away — received heavy rains through June and July.
Through great effort over the years, they have reinforced a bund that retains sweet water in a 45-acre pond, called Shrikrishna Talav, and prevents salty water brought in by the tides from the Tarapur Creek from mixing with it. Tarapur is where the State got its first industrial complex, the Tarapur Industrial Estate, and the country’s first nuclear plant, the Tarapur Atomic Power Station.
The local villagers, after petitioning the government and a prolonged court battle, managed to evict salt pan owners and get the government to construct a bund. The challenge, now, is to maintain it.
Long battle
In 1968, farmers from Tarapur, Kudan, Dedale, Chinchani, Kaloli, Bawda villages sought to construct a bund to prevent the ingress of salty creek water. Till then, they had sweet water to irrigate their land, on which they grew paddy, beans and vegetables. But they found their well water was getting salty. “The ancestral bund was not maintained, and fell prey to flooding. The villagers knew they needed to respond quickly, or else nature would take over; in this case, the sea,” says Ajit Gokhale, water conservationist. The villagers complained to the local representatives, who did not, however, come together for the cause. The pond slipped out of their hands and was given to Garodia Salt Works. In 1972, the fresh water pond turned into a salt pan.
Undeterred, the villagers went to court, and after a two-decade battle, the salt pan contractor was evicted in 1992. But the war was far from over. Between 1992 and 2012, farmers kept moving the government to build a bund and safeguard the pond.
On May 30, 2006, says Dilip Save, a local resident, heavy rain led to the collection of sweet water in a small pond that the Rotary Club of Boisar had built a bund around. “Water levels in wells and borewells rose, and people realised the advantage of reining-in sweet water.”
Stop-gap measure
In 2012, the government finally constructed a 540-m earthen bund, which was meant to seal 159 hectares of land from summer-time sea water ingress. However, the farmers found that it could not effectively lock in the sweet water. So they started working on sealing a part of the 159 hectares by raising the level of the existing road and divided it into two. The one on their side of the village was the 39-acre erstwhile salt pan. They decided to deepen it and create recharge bores to facilitate sweet water entry. However, they found the groundwater oozing out was saltier than the pond water.
Also, a combination of high tide and heavy rainfall submerged the entire bund. When the tide receded, it broke the bund in two places. The villagers somehow tried to control the breach and reduce the outflow of sweet water, with little success. “It broke the same year,” says Mr. Save. “The government repaired it in 2013, but it was not so strong. It held together somehow till 2016, when it broke again in heavy rain.”
The villagers found themselves helpless. Every time they would approach the government, officials would tell them no further modifications could be carried out.
Expert help
In October 2016, they approached the Lions Club of Tarapur for help. After several meetings and preliminary studies, the Lions Club involved Dr. Gokhale to suggest a plan of action, while appealing to corporate organisations and others to raise funds. Dr. Gokhale suggested plugging the breaches, and concreting the weir across the creek.
The Lions Club of Tarapur, along with the Lions Club of Chinchani Tarapur, approached the Palghar District Collector for getting permission from the Khar Land Development Circle, which came on May 31, 2017. “We had to get official permission before starting work, and this took long,” says Dr. Gokhale. “In the meantime, we did some band-aid, tried retaining the shape of the bund. Three days of work — with no one from the government to pitch in — got washed away in the rain. JCB machines, tractors, dumpers, nothing moves in the rain.”
Also, he says, “Nothing happens without permission. Government officials get the feeling that they own the land and the project.”
With the help of donations from organisations and individuals, the Tarapur farmers got the breach in the bund plugged. They now have a 45-acre sweet water pond, which collected 156m litres of water last year. The Lions Clubs and local residents are now in charge of the project. “It was rigorous work,” says Anant Kittur, member of the Lions Club of Tarapur who moved to get the funds in place. “There is no more mixing of creek water with sweet water.”
Dr. Gokhale gave an estimate of ₹15 lakh for reinforcing the bund, which the locals managed to collect through corporate funding and a few donations. “With the amount of work we’ve done so far, we don’t need to touch this for another four to five years. It could withstand the rains this year; only 10-15 feet, that too at the back, was damaged on account of loose soil. We can get it fixed with five to six hours of running a JCB there. We’ll do it in September,” says Mr. Save.
The result of the work, he says, is that water levels in farm wells have risen, and total dissolved salts (TDS, an indicator of potability of water) have come down by nearly half.
Verdant again
“The groundwater was so salty earlier that nothing would grow. People who owned land had stopped farming, moving out to the cities in search of work. The farmers who were left behind were out of work, and took to drinking. Social ills were on the rise. Now, though, they are growing vegetables, fruit trees, and even coconut trees.” Importantly, people are now aware of the need to save their tank. “Jal hai toh kal hai (where there’s water there’s a future) is a refrain you will hear often, in these parts.”
Water supply has been an issue in Tarapur. The villages are dependent on twice-a-week government supply, which in turn is subject to power cuts or pipe bursts. Villagers often travel long distances for water, and they hope the bund will save them the drudgery. Mr. Save himself had given up farming 20 years ago, and worked in various private companies in MIDC, Tarapur. Once the water quality began to improve, he gave up his job there and returned to the village. He now grows coconut, papaya and bananas on his farm.
Tourist destination
The villagers also want to create a 1.5-km green zone on either side of the bund, and promote eco tourism in Boisar and nearby townships, for which they need an additional ₹7 lakh — much of it will be the cost of the road to the site. “People won’t need to go far to spend their weekends. They can fish in the pond here, the climate will pleasant, and there will be birds here after a long time. The work will benefit nearly 30,000 people in the seven to eight villages nearby,” says Mr. Save. Work is on to install benches and create a road for four-wheelers. Mr. Kittur says they will keep appealing for funds to see their vision take shape. Now that it is in their hands, there is no looking back.
Those who would like to help the villagers can contact Anant Kittur on 91-9371721609 or anantkittur@gmail.com, or call Dilip Save on 91-9260134174.