Only half of dams in UT forest area desilted

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 11

The Chandigarh Administration has not yet undertaken the desilting and weed control work of dams, which is affecting the storage capacity of water bodies and flora and fauna of the forest area in the city.

The issue was raised in the audit report submitted to the UT Administration recently. The report said the water bodies had been constructed within the reserved forest area of Chandigarh so as to tide over the scarcity of water during dry season. These water bodies provided recharging of underground water level and helped in maintaining a good vegetation cover. In addition to this, these water bodies also provided drinking water to the wildlife in forests. Over the years silt deposits in these water bodies took place. To maintain adequate level of water in these water bodies, desilting of these bodies was necessary from time to time, the report added.

During the scrutiny of records of the office of the Deputy Conservator of Forests, Chandigarh, for the year 2016-17, it was found that there were four rivulets in the reserved forest area of the city. These rivulets comprised 175 dams. Of these 90 were found to be silted up to March 31, 2006.

On being pointed out in the audit, the office of the Deputy Conservator of Forests, UT, said the number of silted dams had increased and at present, there were 115 numbers of silted dams. The desiltation of dams has not been done for the past several years and the dams are not able to hold water throughout the year and go dry during dry season. The reply of the department was not tenable.

RK Garg, an activist, said water bodies were a must for the forest area as in the absence of these wild animals strayed in the city.