HYDERABAD: With severe drought posing a threat to wildlife, the forest department has decided to sink around 20 solar powered borewells in reserve forests in the state. The failure of monsoon for two consecutive years has led to drying up of water bodies in the forest areas leaving little resources for the wild animals to survive.
To minimise its adverse effects on wild animals, the forest department had sunk 25 battery-operated borewells. The technology will in replenishing tanks in the forest and quench the thirst of wild animals that are straying into human habitations in search of water.
The solar-powered borewells are ideal for depths up to 400 feet but providing water for Amarabad Tiger Reserve, one of the largest tiger reserves in the country, is still a challenge.
“The new technology has been procured from Denmark. It uses direct current from solar panels. It is ideal for 200-300 feet but at many places in Amrabad, we are not able to find water at even 800 feet depth,” said an official with the forest department.
Owing to severe water crisis, tankers, tractors and vans now bring water to Amrabad reserve forest. Water is being stored in cement saucers with a capacity of 500-700 litres, sources said.
The forest department has set a deadline of December 2016 for identifying suitable locations for sinking of borewells so that the network of pipelines and ponds can be operationalised before the onset of next summer.
These new solar powered borewells work automatically from sunrise to sunset, filling the overhead tank and distributing water continuously through the pipeline to small ponds which can hold up to 30,000 litres, in a radius of two to three kilometres, thus quenching thirst of animals without human intervention.
“Under Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority funds, 10 new solar powered borewells and pumpsets have been sanctioned. Another 8 got approved under Biodiversity Society of Telangana (BioSOT),” said the official. Each of the imported pumpsets costs around `6 lakh.
