{"id":137255,"date":"2020-12-18T22:49:17","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T19:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/indian-shepherd-combats-water-scarcity-by-building-ponds\/"},"modified":"2020-12-18T22:49:17","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T19:49:17","slug":"indian-shepherd-combats-water-scarcity-by-building-ponds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/indian-shepherd-combats-water-scarcity-by-building-ponds\/","title":{"rendered":"#Indian shepherd combats water scarcity by building ponds"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Indian shepherd combats water scarcity by building ponds<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

DASANADODDI, India \u2014 Kalmane Kamegowda, a 72-year-old shepherd who lives in a nondescript<\/a> village in southern India, has become something of a celebrity, winning national recognition from no less than Prime Minister Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n

Kamegowda, who never attended school, says he\u2019s spent at least $14,000 from his and his son\u2019s earnings, mainly through selling sheep he tended over the years, to dig a chain of 16 ponds on a picturesque hill near his village, 75 miles west of Bengaluru, India\u2019s Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

The ponds, constructed over the course of four decades, are meant to address the problem of water scarcity. Kamegowda \u2014 known as \u201cPond Man\u201d \u2014 says they\u2019re \u201cscientific\u201d in nature, with the water flowing on a slope, enabling the ponds to avoid drying up even in the scorching summer months. Birds and wild animals such as bears, leopards, deer and foxes use the ponds to quench their thirst.<\/p>\n

Kamegowda, who sports tidy black hair and a gray beard, was once dismissed as mad by other villagers. They mocked him for claiming that he had learned from his father, also a shepherd, the art of identifying ground moisture and using it to create bodies of water.<\/p>\n

He relied mostly on shovels, spades and pickaxes to create the water bodies, and rented excavating machines when he could afford them to structure the ponds.<\/p>\n

The Karnataka state government praised his work two years ago with a prestigious award. But the national recognition came earlier this year when Modi lauded his work on his popular radio broadcast, calling Kamegowda an \u201cordinary farmer\u201d with \u201can extraordinary personality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kalmane
Kalmane Kamegowda, a 72-year-old shepherd, swings his stick to splash water in one of the 16 ponds he created at a hillock near Dasanadoddi village, 75 miles west of Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. <\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHe has achieved a personal feat that will leave anyone awestruck,\u201d the prime mister said, adding that Kamegowda \u201chas dug 16 ponds, through his hard work and the sweat of his brow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is possible that the ponds he has constructed may not be very big, but then his efforts are huge,\u201d Modi said. \u201cToday, the entire area has got a new lease of life on account of these ponds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Social<\/a> groups are now urging Modi to honor Kamegowda with a national award.<\/p>\n

Kamegowda is happy to show journalists around, hobbling on a bandaged leg due to an ulcer wound that hasn\u2019t healed for months. That restricts his regular visits to his ponds these days.<\/p>\n

Four years ago, he saved some money for his daughter-in-law, who was expecting to give birth with a caesarean section, but she delivered a baby boy normally, leaving him with some cash on his hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent the same money to dig another pond and named it Krishna \u2014 after my grandson,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Kalmane
Kalmane Kamegowda, a 72-year-old shepherd, looks for some medicine in a plastic bag at his home after visiting a hillock where he has created 16 ponds, in Dasanadoddi village, 75 miles west of Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kamegowda, who has dozens of sheep, lives in a two-room unfinished shed next to his son\u2019s house, and enjoys spending time with his family. He keeps all of the documents and news<\/a>paper clippings reflecting his achievements.<\/p>\n

He has a second nickname \u2014 \u201cVanapalaka,\u201d or guardian of forests, earned through his planting of trees in an area near the ponds designated by officials as a park.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the villagers are proud of me, but those who are jealous try hard to malign my image,\u201d he said. \u201cI ask people not to pollute the ponds by washing clothes and restrict the use of water only for their livestock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to see villagers bring their livestock to these ponds to drink water, but it hurts when some try to defame me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He was referring to some villagers who, apparently jealous of the recognition he had received, submitted a petition to the local administrator, complaining that Kamegowda was treating the pond area as his personal estate even though it was government land.<\/p>\n

However, the local administrator, Deputy Commissioner M.V. Venkatesh, said he visited the village and found that \u201cthere is a wrong perception\u201d about Kamegowda\u2019s work. \u201cHis work is genuine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This year, the Karnataka state government allotted $67,500 for the further development of watersheds in the area.<\/p>\n

Venkatesh noted that every rainy season, tanks built by Kamegowda become filled with water, and serve as reservoirs for birds and other forest animals during the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a very dedicated man, a very selfless servant for the protection of the environment and ecology. In fact, he is a role model to other people in watershed development,\u201d Venkatesh said. \u201cHe is doing very good work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kalmane
Kalmane Kamegowda, a 72-year-old shepherd, attends to his sheep at his home in Dasanadoddi village, 75 miles west of Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. <\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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“#Indian shepherd combats water scarcity by building ponds” DASANADODDI, India \u2014 Kalmane Kamegowda, a 72-year-old shepherd who lives in a nondescript village in southern India, has become something of a celebrity, winning national recognition from no less than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Kamegowda, who never attended school, says he\u2019s spent at least $14,000 from his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/12\/shepard-7-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[86955,71595,17318,72415,34115],"class_list":["post-137255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-12-18-20","tag-animals","tag-india","tag-livestock","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}