Darbhanga in Bihar’s Mithilanchal region, about 160 km north of State capital Patna, had over 350 ponds till 1969 as per the district gazetteer and was known as the ‘city of ponds’. Today less than 100 remain and the town is grappling with depleting groundwater, leaving residents struggling to draw water from hand pumps in summer.

The remaining ponds are allegedly being filled up daily and built over by encroachers to construct houses, hotels, hospitals and coaching institutes, according to members of Talab Bachao Abhiyan (TBA), a citizen group. They add that the State government’s “rejuvenation and beautification” plan for historical ponds is deepening the water crisis.

The State Urban Development and Housing Department had entrusted BUIDCO (Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation) with a ₹70.34-crore comprehensive rejuvenation and beautification plan for three historically interconnected large ponds — Harahi, Dighi, and Gangasagar — covering 1.8 km. The corporation had even started work to lay pathways.

Plea in apex court

Apprehending that the plan would “alter the ecological character of the wetland system that plays a vital role in groundwater recharge, flood moderation, and biodiversity conservation”, the TBA members petitioned the Supreme Court seeking restoration and reclamation instead of beautification of the ponds.

They filed a writ petition on March 14 in the Supreme Court. The Division Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta recorded an oral undertaking from the Bihar government on July 28 that “no further soil would be dumped” in the three ponds and that the ongoing beautification plan will be halted thereafter. “The court also sent a clear message that ponds and water bodies cannot be encroached upon or filled under the guise of beautification,” a TBA member said.

The apex court later fixed September 7 as the next date of hearing.

“We will wait for the final order of the Supreme Court in this matter and then take a decision over the allocated funds under the scheme. Funds allocated for the beautification plan of the ponds will not go waste in any condition. In such cases, we use it for another scheme,” State Urban Development and Housing Department Minister Nitish Mishra told The Hindu on August 26.

The TBA, formed in 2012, has about 150 members. Leading the fight are its convener Narayan Jee Choudhary, known as the ‘pond man’ of Darbhanga; Vidyanath Jha, a founding member who is a retired principal and Botany professor at Lalit Narayan Mithila University; and activists Taseem Nawab and Ajit Kumar Mishra.

They allege that the beautification plan under the BUIDCO “violates the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017, and judicial directions governing the protection of wetlands and water bodies by the National Green Tribunal (NGT)”.

‘Nature’s storage tanks’

According to former State Pollution Control Board chairman Ashok Kumar Ghosh, ponds are “nature’s storage tanks”. “During monsoon, ponds hold excess rainwater and allow it to seep into the ground, replenishing underground aquifers. Once ponds are filled and paved over, the natural recharge system is lost and rainwater flows away through drains or evaporates instead of filtering into the soil,” he said.

Mr. Ghosh added that the problem has become acute with depleting groundwater in fast-growing towns like Darbhanga where demand for drinking water has led to “heavy dependence on borewells as natural recharge zones continue to disappear”.

This is not the first time that the TBA has protested against encroachments. “We have organised dharnas thrice from Darbhanga to Laheriasarai, taken out rallies twice, conducted signature campaigns, and held nukkad (street corner) and all-party meetings to raise the issue but nothing happened. We then decided to petition the NGT, which too passed directives in our favour. Finally, we approached the apex court when the government started its beautification plan,” Mr. Mishra said.

Mr. Nawab, in his 60s, claimed that he faced a “murderous attack” on January 10, 2024 for opposing encroachment of the Moin pond. He alleged that he had filed a complaint at the Laheriasarai police station on January 13, 2024, but no action was taken.

“After our legal interventions, the State government has stopped landfilling around these three ponds that are ecologically sensitive wetlands. Both the Supreme Court and the NGT have issued directions to prepare a comprehensive digital inventory of ponds and wetlands across Bihar, including Darbhanga. And by doing this, we can save these three ponds of Darbhanga as well. These directions will strengthen monitoring and conservation of ponds,” Mr. Choudhary said.