Mahashay Rathia

Honnamana Kere lake, located in Chikkaballapura district in Karnataka, is more than 400 years old and is one of over 4,000 man-made lakes built during the period of the Vijayanagara empire. These lakes were crucial to the water storage and harvesting system developed by the empire and helped in sustaining agriculture and livestock. However, the water bodies also needed managers who could oversee their functioning, which is how the profession of the neeruganti (water manager) came into being.

We belong to the Tharu community in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh, and our people have been living near the forest for the past 300 years. We would protect its flora and fauna and, in return, the forest would give us timber and wood to use for cooking food and building houses. However, since 1977, when the Dudhwa National Park was built, our community has been facing displacement and various restrictions on accessing the forest produce.

In the Rann of Kachchh, a very dry and saline region in Gujarat, water is a scarce commodity. This makes the village pond in Thoriyari, located in Kachchh district’s Rapar block, a precious community resource. Thoriyari is home to 330 households, and the pond serves many of their water-related needs such as drinking water for cattle and washing clothes. The pond also acts as a biodiversity hotspot—the Indian black Ibis is one of the many migratory birds that nests here every year.