The revival of seven springs

 I have always encouraged students to actively participated in the NSS and NCC programmes of their institutions. If not for anything else, these routines will bring you closer to the real people of  India.

If NSS can help you get in touch with more people, the NCC will inculcate discipline in life. Both will definitely help you make a better individual.     

I would like to illustrate an incident about the benefits of  NSS and how its activities can help in building a nation, saving lives or even help revive a stream or lake.    

So here goes a tribute from the post to the NSS students of  RC College in Bangalore.

A few year ago, B Com and BBM students, numbering 46, from RC college were on a eleven day trip to Chennarayadurga or Chennigiri Hills which is adjacent to Nandi Hills in Chikaballapur district.

They had climbed the Chennigiri Hills to desilt an old and disused pond atop the hill. They had been told that this pond was once a feeder stream to the Arkavathy which takes birth from Nandi Hills.

The pond or Kalyani was completely covered with trash, plastic, debris, construction material, mud and slush. There was no sign of water anywhere.

The NSS team did not lose heart and set about the back breaking work of cleaning the pond of filth. NSS officer Tripura and her team slogged for hours every day. What makes their effort all the more laudatory is that the team had 22 women students.

The group had breakfast every morning at their base camp in Doddarayappanahalli village and then climb two kilometre to the summit. They would then get to work on the cleaning and it went on for five continuous days till late in the evening.

Days of hard work paid dividends and on the fifth day, the students  noticed water bubbling up from a natural spring within the pond or Kalyani. The next day when they returned to the pond, they found the entire area filled with water.

They got a pump installed near the pond and drained off the water. On the eleventh day of their camp, the students discovered seven long-dormant springs.

These springs today join the Arkavathy which for long has been the lifeline of Bangalore. If students can revive a spring, why  can’t Bangaloreans contribute their mite to revive our river.

Today, Bangalore is in the throes of a water crisis and the Cauvery award has little scope for meeting our water needs. The easiest and most inexpensive way to recharge the ground water would be to clean up the kalyanis, water channels and lakes.      

Geologists say that at least ten lakes between Doddaballapur and Channarayaswamy Betta need to be cleaned up while around 50 lakes between Doddaballapur and Hesarghatta need to be cleaned up so that they can be revived.  

Once these sources are revived, it would automatically give a new life to Arkavathi.