THE ENDANGERED WILD WATERS By (Samir Kumar Sinha) There are many rivulets far from human settlements. These are wild waters flowing across a vast forest tract, the Chitwan-Valmiki forest unit, along the India-Nepal border in south Asia. The Indian side of the forest is inhabited by many wild species. Some are very rare and threatened, including the Royal Bengal Tiger. These rivulets cris crossing the forestland are the only drinking water source to the wildlife. Not only wild animals but also the thousands of poor villagers living in the vicinity of the forest tract are dependent on these streams. But, abuse and misuse by the local humans is turning water into an endangered – and dangerous - natural commodity in the region. The government is also not very much interested in management of these waters and situation is turning alarming not only for the parched wildlife but also for the greedy human being. I am using the term greedy for the locals because, they are hardly concerned with the health of the water, on which they are awfully dependent for their day-to-day activities besides irrigation and fishing, and exploit it like anything. Every year these rivers wash out hundreds of hectares of fertile land during rains, and the villagers term the rivers as a curse for them. But, they hardly feel that they themselves generate such consequences. THE DISTURBED CYCLE (Locals pan for gold in wild water) Pristine rivulets stream down the hills through gorges. As soon as they reach to the points of human impact, their characteristics change. In fact, reckless exploitation of forest in the past and significant biotic disturbances at present have reduced tree cover and also the ground vegetation, a situation conducive to soil erosion – resulting in a heavy silt load in the flow, and loss of fertile topsoil and trees in the forest.   Rainwater drains through narrow channels connected with the rivulets, and it carries a huge amount of eroded soil. The water laden with grinding sand particles further intensifies its erosive power and all these sand and silt gets deposited in the water spread area resulting in reduced fertility of the agricultural land. Villagers do thoughtless and illegal exploitation of forest vegetation so they are directly responsible for the green cover degradation and thus disturbances in the water cycle of the area. A villager complains, “we are neither get enough rains for irrigation nor the easy potable water”. The ground water table goes down during summer. Government immerses few bore well tubes for a drinking water supply, but the next summer this arrangement goes defunct as the ground water table recedes. An old villager is convinced that human beings have contributed to the devastation, the youth of the same village hardly acknowledge it. They only blame the government for not providing water through irrigation canals without giving any thought to the root cause of the problem.   Amidst disturbed water balance, the villagers divert the sparse rivulet water for agriculture through narrow channels. Diversion of wild water often causes rivalry among villagers. The reason - they have to share a scarce resource. On few occasions, several people have died in exchange of fire among the villagers for the water. Such diversion causes water scarcity for wild animals downstream the diversion site during low water season. (Collecting molluscs in wild water) Problem with wild waters also relates to other key ecological disturbances in the forest. The villagers make unauthorized entry in the forest, of course due to their necessity, and play with the delicate natural balance. They set fires in the forest during summer to get palatable grass for their cattle after mild showers. By this they destroy entire ground vegetation, seedlings and saplings of trees and dead and fallen parts of trees. It causes reduction in humus, the top organic matter, which acts as sponge and rainwater absorber besides natural fertilizer. This absorbed water, in fact, assures a year-round supply of water in the natural streams and ponds in the forest. In absence of natural water absorbers, entire rainwater during monsoon is wasted, inviting crisis for villagers as well as the wildlife. In many dry and scarce rain areas of India wisdom of traditional water harvesting system and construction of small check dams by government and villagers to store rainwater has given fruitful results and sustained supply of water. But, it has not been practiced in this region, people think that they are close to the Himalayas and have many perennial rivers. They regard themselves as water-rich people, but it has been proved to be a myth. They have water, but it is not always of use. When it is in plenty during rains it is in the form of flood and during rest of the year its quantity is for namesake. [what does this mean?] POISONING THE PRECIOUS Fishing is a traditional practice of tribal population living in the villages. Earlier they caught fish for their own consumption, but now they do it also to earn money. To a sheer shock! they apply pesticides in the rivers to disable the fishes. The rivulets have plenty of small fishes and catching them in nets is enough for family use, rather hard and time-consuming for commercial sale. After usage of the poison, the dead fishes float on the water surface and are easily sieved by nets. Some leftover floating fishes serve as easy food for birds. The fishes laced with pesticide are definitely a slow poison, if not an immediate killer for these birds and small carnivores. Researches have shown that pesticide residue in bird results in thinning of their eggshells, affecting their reproduction. These poisons also go to the human being with intake of the contaminated water and poisoned fishes. These rivers are sole source of drinking water for wildlife; so its poisoning by villagers is a matter of great concern. This might have affected reproduction of the animals resulting into their low abundance in the forest area. (Forest with wild water) Legally, fishing is not allowed in the wildlife protected areas of India but due to poor protection mechanism and negligence of the government these provisions are breached by the locals leaving the wildlife and the surrounding human communities in absolute peril.   Is there a solution for this complex problem? # # #