Growing up in Bero, a tiny village situated 30 km from Ranchi, Simon Oraon realised that irrigation water was what his native Chhotangapur region needed the most.
The septuagenarian, therefore, spent most of his life mobilising villagers to build dams and ponds. He has also planted thousands of trees to regain forest cover.
While Oraon’s family owned eight acres of fallow land, he grew up seeing his relatives grow a monocrop of paddy for want of water. The forest cover was lost to felling of trees by the timber mafia. In the post-monsoon period, most villagers migrated to distant areas in search of jobs, leaving behind the old and infirm to fend for themselves. And when sometimes the monsoon failed, drought caused hunger and even death.
Soon after leaving school as a Class IV dropout in 1961, Oraon wanted to set things right. “I felt compelled to resolve the problems of deforestation and water crisis,” said the farmer, now 73.
During the rains, Oraon walked miles in the opposite direction of the streams’ flow to trace their origin. Once there, he mapped the contour of the rainwater falling from top of the hills . “In the undulating terrain, water gushed out creating ravines. I thought if a dam is built somewhere near the foothills, that water can be blocked and used for irrigation with the use of canals on the plains,” said Oraon.
Soon, with the help of fellow villagers, he constructed the first dam of earth near Gaighat in Bero in 1961. The dam, however, caved in next monsoon. Undeterred, he reconstructed the dam. This time too, it failed to withstand the strong current of water. The third time the state water resource department intervened and increased its height and width. “This worked. So much so that the dam has not developed any crack till date,” said Oraon.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/a-73yearold-who-saves-rainwater-and-jungles/719667/
