The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Water wonder in Andhra Pradesh

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Friday, Jan 21, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Water wonder in Andhra Pradesh

By Dennis Marcus Mathew

HYDERABAD, JAN. 20. Strange episodes of sudden spurting of water from the earth in spots that have been dry for decades, have sent waves of wonderment among village residents in and around Tandur, 110 km from here.

The phenomenon was first noticed on January 16 on a 5-hectare farm in Mukundapur in Yallal mandal of Rangareddy district. Since then similar episodes have been reported from two other spots — a well that was dry for over 15 years and another farming plot — about 5 km apart.

The authorities are yet to offer an explanation for the episodes. But the owner of the farm promptly put up a fence around his "miracle well" that is about 30 cm deep and is conducting day-long pujas. The village committee has posted three guards, to prevent anyone from `stealing' the water.

People, mostly farmers from as far afield as Bidar in Karnataka, which is some 100 km from Mukundapur, and from Mahbubnagar, are coming in small groups and returning with the "divine water" in plastic bottles. Many of them want to sprinkle it on their drought-stricken farmland.

The farm-owner says he had sunk a 40-m deep borewell hardly 15 m from the spot six months ago, to no avail. There is no perceptible increase in water levels in nearby borewells.

Some 5 km away, at Bonammagudi in Old Tandur, a dealer in stone slabs, Dasarath Patel, is looking for a new garbage dump. The 10.6-m deep well, which had been dry for over 15 years and where he had been chucking waste from his stone cutting unit, now has water up to 9 m.

Officials of the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) said similar reports were received from certain areas on the Andhra Pradesh-Karnataka border. They have installed a seismic station at Chincholi, 50 km from Tandur. "We will analyse the data on January 29. Only then can we say... Since these are limestone areas and hence cavernous underneath, it could also be a natural hydraulic flow from the Bhima basin," said one official.

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