Tiruppatur district in Tamil Nadu is aiming to create a world record for digging 1,556 farm ponds in a period of 30 days. The present record is again in the name of another district of Tamil Nadu - Tiruvannamalai, which had dug 1,121 ponds in 2021.
Tiruppatur district had used the services of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) workers for digging these 1,556 ponds in a bid to increase the ground water table of the district. Each pond has the capacity to hold 2 lakh litre of rainwater.
District Collector M. Bhaskar Pandian told media persons that the objective of this initiative was to increase the groundwater level of the area. The initiative also has helped to create employment opportunities for rural people and thereby increasing their revenue level.
During the rainy weather, these ponds will turn into reservoirs thus helping the farmers to store water for the summer season. The farm ponds help farmers to diversify into fish farming also thereby increasing the revenue of rural farm folks.
Sources in the district administration told IANS that teams from US-based Elite World Records, UAE-based Asian Records Academy, Indian Records Academy, and Thamizhan Book of Records will soon be visiting the district and inspect the farm ponds for announcing the world record.
The district administration had taken steps to dig farm ponds in a bid to increase the groundwater table and for that, a door-to-door awareness campaign was conducted. The volunteers roped in by the district administration gave inputs on the benefits of farm ponds for the environment and for the conservation of rainwater, plants, and other species.
A senior official with the Tiruppatur district administration told IANS that both the individual and community lands were used for digging the ponds. Unskilled workers from the MNREGA were used for the digging of these ponds.
MGNREGA has allocated an amount of Rs 2 lakh for each farm pond and each labourers was paid daily wages of Rs 294.
(With inputs from IANS)
