Farmers belonging to Hanur taluk in Chamarjanagar district of Karnataka State have sought the help of the Coimbatore district administration to trace the map of a 40-acre water body at Doddadevarahalli hamlet in Martalli Village Panchayat that had existed in pre-Independence era.

Kollegal taluk, out of which Hanur taluk was carved later, was part of the composite Coimbatore district during the British regime.

Down the decades, the water body was subsumed in the reserve forest area. The map is crucial for the team as the Forest Department in Karnataka had reportedly expressed readiness to revive the water body on furnishing of proper records.

A team of farmers had initially approached the Erode district administration and carried out an extensive search in the sub-registrar office in Gobichettipalayam, but were not able to trace the records. They were, in turn, directed to the District Record Centre at Perur in Coimbatore district. The water body was crucial for livelihood of residents in 17 hamlets including Doddadevarahalli, Kadambur, Makaralli and Elachikarai in the surroundings, Arputharaj, a team member said.

The team has in its possession a document pertaining to 1915 that had been preserved for generations. The document states about the existence of the water body at the time when Coimbatore district had the jurisdiction over Kollegal prior to demarcation of boundaries on linguistic basis, after the British era.

The cause of the team that has been looking for records from Tamil Nadu that would corroborate the particulars in the document in their possession was espoused at the monthly farmers’ grievance redressal meeting by a senior functionary of Annur-based Kongu Ilaignar Peravai Palanisamy.

District Collector Pavankumar G. Giriyappanavar, who chaired the meeting, assured the members to trace out the map from the District Record Centre.

According to the Archives Department, the Coimbatore District Record Office established in 1982 preserves records of administrative and historical importance which are more than 30 years old. A total of 38,741 records belonging to Revenue, Education, Forest, Local Administration and other departments are preserved.

Public welfare organisations in Hanur have been emphasising on revival of the water body for about a decade, and the farmers have been actively pursuing the issue for the last two years, in the wake of acute water shortage.

The residents who are pre-dominantly Tamil-speaking people find themselves in a situation of sourcing water from borewells dug to a depth in excess of 900 metres. “The salt content in the water is causing various ailments,” Mr. Arputhasamy said.

At present, the site of the erstwhile water body looks like a shrunken pond. Fortunately for the residents, the Forest Department is not averse to restoring the water body. The revival of water body will pave way for laying a pipeline for sourcing Cauvery water from within a 16-km distance whereby the aquifer level would also rise, Mr. Arputhasamy said.