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    Lease of Life: Once dead, the freshwater lake in Cuttack is now a haven for birds

    Synopsis

    Situation had become so dire that by 2007, nearly all of the 182-hectare lake in Banki in Cuttack district was covered by the weeds except for a seven-hectare patch. The CDA created hundreds of staggered trenches, check dams and percolation tanks and plugged gullies bringing silt from the hills to conserve moisture and recharge groundwater to save it.

    ET Bureau
    A patch of water hyacinths enclosed in a blue net floats in the middle of Ansupa Lake, its serene surface reflecting an overcast sky and hills. “That patch is for people to take selfies,” says Faninandra Bhushan Nanda, assistant conservator of forest at the Chilika Development Authority (CDA) as tourists in paddle boats float past the hyacinths.

    This is somewhat ironic, for these were the same water hyacinths and other macrophytes (aquatic plants) that had nearly choked to death Odisha’s largest freshwater lake. The situation had become so dire that by 2007, nearly all of the 182-hectare lake in Banki in Cuttack district was covered by the weeds except for a seven-hectare patch.

    Ansupa derives its name either from hansa, presumably from the ducks that once flocked to it, or ansa as in a portion of the Mahanadi river. The wetlands play a crucial part in acting as a sponge for floodwaters, besides being rich in biodiversity, prompting CDA officials to dub it a “supermarket of nature.”

    Once fed naturally by the floodwaters of the Mahanadi, the lake had been cut off by an elevation of the river embankment and the blocking of three inflow and outflow channels, which led to the proliferation of weeds.
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    Originally stretching to 230 hectares, encroachment by paddy cultivators who were using pesticides and chemical fertilisers was another concern. Repeated efforts to manually de-weed the Ansupa, which would only allow 25% of it to be cleared at a time, could not keep pace with the speed at which the hyacinths were growing. Finally in 2018, the department hit upon the idea of buying a Rs 2.13 crore Swedish amphibian mechanical weed harvester under the World Bank’s Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project. Thanks to this, almost 90% of the weeds were cleared in one go.


    Saving the lake also required work on a catchment area of 5,000 hectares, made up of a dozen villages in three panchayats, says Nanda. The CDA created hundreds of staggered trenches, check dams and percolation tanks and plugged gullies bringing silt from the hills to conserve moisture and recharge groundwater.

    Beneficiaries of Ansupa’s revival include the two fishing communities of Keuta and Kamaras from Subarnapur and Malabiharipur villages, which were traditionally dependent on the lake.

    Nirakhya Jena, president of the 300-member Ansupa Primary Fishermen Cooperative Society, says their catch — and earnings — have almost doubled. On average, they catch 70-80 kg of fish a day. “Earlier, we would go out for construction work to earn a livelihood.
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    Members of self-help group Ma Mangala Swayam Sahayaka Goshti who run a park and a boat service for tourists


    The revival of the lake has allowed almost all of us to stay back in the village throughout the year.” “Reviving a eutrophicated lake (abundant in plant nutrients but low in oxygen) to double fishermen’s income and develop an ecological ecosystem again is no mean feat. This year, we have had sightings of the Indian skimmer, which is on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list (of threatened species), the endangered black-bellied tern and a great crested grebe, which was spotted with its chicks,” says Tuhinansu Kar, who is doing ornithological research with the CDA.

    But that’s not all the lake’s revival has achieved. There is a 15-acre park on its banks from where tourists gain access to the lake.


    Its bamboo garden and children’s park and the boating service are managed by a 42-member women’s self-help group (SHG).

    For every Rs 15 ticket sold, the money is split equally between the SHG, the CDA and a corpus, which is set aside for the development of Ansupa. The latest season, which runs from November to February, has been lucrative. The women made Rs 11 lakh, with Rs 4 lakh earned in December alone.

    The women, pretty much all of whom go by the surname of Dalei, are also beginning to take ownership. One of them, Sulochana Dalei, reminds Nanda that a visiting bureaucrat had suggested they make doormats from water hyacinths, and would like to know when they can get the details. Rebati Dalei wants some flowering plants in the park, maybe dahlias. All the stakeholders who have revived the Ansupa, it would seem, are benefiting from its generosity.

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    ( Originally published on Feb 22, 2020 )
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