Himanshu Kaushik | TNN | Mar 16, 2016, 11.36 AM IST
AHMEDABAD: The forest department is making elaborate arrangements to
ensure that the Asiatic lion and other wildlife do not remain thirsty
during summer.
The department is taking adequate steps to ensure
availability of water not only within the Gir sanctuary but even ouside
the reserve where lions are found.
The department proposes to
add 350 watering holes in the area, which includes artificial ponds
created in the fields of farmers. After this, the Gir landscape, which
is spread over 22,000 sq km, will have no less than 800 artificial
watering holes where lions can quench their thirst during summer.
According
to officials, most of the artificial ponds are in Gir Sanctuary while
fewer than 50 are in the area outside the control of the forest
department which is now planning to construct new ponds and fill up the
empty ones in the fields that have parapets around their mouths.
Officials
said the department has decided that new ponds will be constructed only
if there is a windmill or a solar power system so that water is filled
automatically. He said that where there is no source of natural water,
tankers will be used to fill the watering holes.
AP Singh, chief
conservator of forests, Junagadh, said that they will ensure that there
is enough water for lions and wildlife during summer.
"We will also have water ponds outside the forest area which lions have made their permanent home," said Singh.
The forest department has around 500 man-made water bodies which are now filled regularly at the onset of summer.
Water tankers, wind mills, the solar power system and human power are used to fill the water bodides twice every day.
Such water bodies are created especially at places where natural water sources are not available.
According to DCF, Dr Ram Ratan Lala, these arrangements have been made due to poor monsoon last year.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Gir-to-have-350-more-watering-holes/articleshow/51422029.cms
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