Page 4 - Jan-Mar 2015

Forts and Feats DID YOU KNOW?

The Nizam Shahi kings built 15
Forts in India have amazing water harvesting systems. They were water channels to supply water to
made on sites where water had to be stored for the summer months.
the city of Ahmednagar. These
Forts in india were generally built on top of hills. all these forts channels connected the deep wells
had unique systems for rainwater harvesting. The amber Fort built near the fort of the nearby
in Jaipur had an automatic system for desilting and aeration hills to the city.
of harvested rainwater. The system was so advanced that
only after the rainwater was cleaned, it was transferred to a
storage tank. The Chittor Fort also has a large water reservoir
which was used to store rainwater. The Panhala Fort built by JAIGARH WATER WALk
shivaji in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, had many baolis and wells Jaigarh fort in Jaipur is a wonderful site for a water heritage
to tap underground water. walk. The fort is situated on top of the hill named Cheel Ka
Teela (hill of eagles) and is higher than the nearby amber
Fort. Jaigarh, meaning ‘victory fort’ was built between the
15th and 18th century. The water supply facilities in the fort
was met by creating water
harvesting structures in
the vicinity of the aravalli
catchment. water was
conveyed through a canal
on the west side of the fort
over a 4 kilometre distance
to be stored in three
underground tanks below
the central courtyard. The
Illustration by: Mehak, VII-A, DAV Public School, Sec-14, Faridabad largest one stored up to
6 million gallons of water
StORY OF tEMPLE tANKS and stood on 81 pillars.
There is also a natural
The traditional way of building tanks along with reservoir which gets filled
temples is an age-old one. In south India, this up whenever it rains.
tradition was very popular and almost all the Water Walk- Jaigarh Fort
major temples had tanks attached to them fed
by rainwater. Tamil Sangam literature also refers
to tank irrigation. Many of these tanks have been
cleaned and are now being used for harvesting
rainwater.

JAIGARH
FEAt!
INTAcH INITIAvE-NAGERcOIL The water channels
The temple tanks of the Kanyakumari district built around the fort
brought water inside
of Tamil Nadu are highly polluted with an e-coli it. The channels went
content of more than 3000 unit per 100 ml of underground and water
water. The Nagercoil Chapter of INTACH in gates were constructed
collaboration with the Natural Heritage Division, to regulate at various
INTACH sponsored an anoxic bioremediation points.
project at Suchindrum Theppakulam Temple Tank.

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