Over 8,300 waterbodies encroached in TN: Census

CHENNAI: The first census on waterbodies, conducted by the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, revealed that 8,366 waterbodies in Tamil Nadu are reeling under encroachments of various levels.

According to the census, the State has 1.07 lakh waterbodies, out of which 92.9% (99,414) are in rural areas. The remaining 7.1% (7,543) are in urban areas. Majority of the waterbodies are tanks and ponds.

The Census report added that out of the total waterbodies surveyed, 8,366 were reported to be encroached. These were 2,805 ponds, 3,565 tanks, 1,458 lakes, 5 reservoirs, 69 water conservation schemes and 464 other types of water bodies.

“Out of 8,366, the encroachment area was assessed in 4,933 waterbodies. Among the waterbodies whose encroachment area could be assessed, 2,596 were assessed to have less than 25% area under encroachment, 1,328 having encroachment area ranging between 25% and 75% and 1,009 have more than 75% encroachment area,” it said.

As many as 98,139 are public-owned whereas the remaining 8,818 are under private ownership. By location, 36,683 waterbodies are located under ‘Drought Prone Areas’ and 9,547 in tribal areas and remaining 60,727 are located in flood-prone areas, Naxal-affected and other areas. Meanwhile, out of total waterbodies, 56,760 are in use whereas 50,197 water bodies are not in use on account of drying up, siltation, destruction beyond repair, salinity and other reasons. Out of the ‘in use’ waterbodies, 20,324 are used for irrigation purposes in the State.

Among these, only 8,959 waterbodies are bigger with a storage capacity of over 10,000 cubic metres.