The objective of building ponds is to prevent wildfires, floods, landslides, lightning and the entry of wild cattle into the settlement and lastly climate change due to carbon sink. This age-old technique virtually prevents all disasters except earthquakes
Like two fast bowlers Sompal Kami and Rajan KC hunting in pairs in Nepali cricket or like tigers hunting in pairs in the forest, the domestic fires and wildfires have been creating havoc in Nepal these days. Accordingly, in Koshi Pradesh alone, 21 persons are reported to have lost their lives in 871 events in all its 14 districts from the month of Shravan to the 5th of Chaitra with injury suffered by 97 people. The loss has been estimated at a phenomenal sum of around Rs 15 crores. From the last week of Fagun till the 5th of Chaitra alone, 261 such incidents have made their presence like uninvited guests leading to the loss of 3 lives and subsequent damage to 171 houses.
Studies have shown that the forests go up in flame from March to May, and these months account for 78 per cent of such incidents. Fifty-eight per cent of such fires are said to have been caused by grazers, poachers, hunters and non-timber forest collectors.
Forest fires due to negligence and accident amount to 22 and 20 per cent, respectively. Such fires are mostly caused by the carelessness of passers-by, smokers and picnickers for the former and ignorance as well as illiteracy for the later.
Forest fires, however, are not confined to Nepal alone. In fact, it has assumed the form of a global irony. Almost 4 per cent of global forests burn every year due to climate change. What is more, forest fires have been observed in all countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. They vary according to the vegetation type, temperature variation, geographic feature and land use pattern.
Fires have been causing immense damage since times immemorial. When the monkey God Hanuman was found tresspassing on Lanka's territory, Ravan arrested him and ordered his younger brother Bibhishana to burn his tail and paraded in the streets of golden Lanka. Hanuman did not feel the pain, thanks to the courtesy of God Agni, and, in turn, set the whole of Lanka into flames by mobilising his serpentine and burning tail.
Similarly, in order to kill the Pandava brothers, Duryodhan had hatched a conspiracy and constructed a palace out of inflammable materials along with bamboo, straw and wax with the help of architect Purochana. The five brothers were invited to stay in this palace, also known as Lakshagriha, by King Dhritarastra and was later set into flames. But the Pandavas made flight through a tunnel after being informed by his erudite uncle Bidura beforehand.
In Nepal, the golden era Licchavi capital of Hadi Gaon is said to have caught fire in the seventh century. Fire also turned the Patan Palace square into ashes in the seventeenth century, including the towering Degu Tale Temple, when King Shree Nivas Malla was on the throne in the seventeenth century. More recently, in the Seventies, then Prime Minister Kirti Nidhi Bista resigned after the Principal Secretariat, the Singha Durbar, marked as the largest building complex in south Asia, went up in smoke, reducing it to a mere shadow of its former self. In the recent past, the headquarters of Taplejung, Fungling, was also damaged by a fire.
What can be the easy way out to counter such devastating fires? The all knowledgeable Chanakya in fourth century BC had written about the use of water bodies like ponds in the towns. It would gather the rain water with the result that it would prevent floods from preventing damage in the cities. Accordingly, one can see the construction of ponds in Nepal, especially in the Kathmandu Valley, and places like Janakpur in Madhesh.
One can see this phenomenon in the Lele River flowing in the south of Lalitpur district, where a dam had been built to construct a royal canal known as Raj Kulo, which passed through Tika Bhairab, Chapagaon, Thetcho and eventually Patan before at least the sixth century. This was, however, intercepted during the construction of the Ring Road, which resulted in the drying of many stone water spouts in Patan area.
The canal would deposit water in the ponds thereby acting as a reservoir, which would then charge the stone spouts with water. In order to have adequate gravity head, the water spouts were constructed below the ground in sunken form with a single exception of the Golden Spout in Patan, which is at ground level.
The history of such projects goes back to the year 505 during the reign of the illustrious King Mana Dev who ruled for 41 glorious years beginning from 464 AD, according to an inscription of Kel Tole of the year 505 that describes how the King had made available sweet drinking water. Nepal has thus a documented history of water supply of more than 1,500 years.
Accordingly, ponds had been constructed at two places, firstly in Kalapani near Bardibas and Kharpa in Khotang district numbering 176 in total, starting from the highland to the midland and culminating in the lowland, by this columnist with the support of Rotary Club of Thamel and Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), respectively. The objective was to prevent wildfires, floods, landslides, lightning and the entry of wild cattle in the settlement and lastly climate change due to carbon sink. This age-old technique virtually prevents all disasters except earthquakes. Recently, a swarm of drones have been proposed to extinguish wildfires by the Indian Institute of Science in Bangaluru.
In fact, this campaign should have been given nationwide coverage, but it has unfortunately ended up being a one-off event. Harka Sampang, the Mayor of Dharan, took some initiative, but it has yet to visibly take off the ground. There have been sporadic attempts at other places, also but such half-hearted attempts are far from effective they need national coverage.
Pokharel is former Vice Chancellor, NAST
