6.41 crore plan for Anshupa lake
Bhubaneswar- Cuttack- Puri, Cuttack, Drainage development, Lakes, Water harvesting, Watersheds November 26th. 2007, 3:19pmFollowing is an excerpt from a news report in Pioneer.
Ansupa, Orissa’s largest fresh water lake, 70 km from here, is set to be revived at a cost of Rs 6.41 crore. The Finance Commission is funding the first phase of the project, during which the lake’s silt load is being removed.
… Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy said the State Government aimed at bringing back both aquatic life and tourists to Ansupa. An existing channel would be revived to facilitate entry of water and trees would be planted on the banks of the lake to check soil erosion, he said, adding that development of ecotourism was an integral part of the project.
The lake previously used to boast of a picture perfect setting between Saranda and Bishnupur hills on the outskirts of the sub-divisional town of Athgarh and was home to migratory birds in winter. It, however, suffered a slow death due to severe erosion around its catchment area, silting and proliferation of algae and hyacinth plants. The lake’s depth has now been reduced to 10 feet from the original 40 feet.
The revival project, being implemented by the District Rural Development Agency, Cuttack, under the Ansupa Area Development Scheme, aims at reopening of the Kabulanala channel on the lake’s south-east side, which used to link it with the Mahanadi till an embankment was constructed on the river a decade back. The floodwaters used to enter the lake from the south-eastern side through the channel and flush out the weeds through a stream, Hulhullanala, which runs into the Mahanadi on the south-western side.
The proposed opening of the channel would revive the natural process of de-weeding as the embankment stalled this natural process and the water entering into the lake could not get released. The heavy silting had set in due to the soil erosion from Saranda hill on the lake’s western side and Bishnupur hill on its north-eastern side due to deforestation. Besides, conversion of the silted area into paddy fields worsened the situation.
March 12th, 2008 at 4:01 am
Thanks to the state government of Orissa for funding the revival of the dying fresh water Ansupa lake. I did a study using satellite remote sensing revealed that nearly 45% of the lake area is either used for agriculture or silted. The current study results was also published in the National Academy Science Letters journal. A short article on Ansupa lake was published by Current Science journal (vol-94,10march2008,p-560).
So we must conserve our lakes for betterment of the society.