Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 25: A presentation cum interactive session on ‘Traditional water bodies of Jammu Municipal Corporation Area’ was organized jointly by the Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Jammu and INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage) Jammu Chapter.
The event was organized as part of the joint study carried out by the department in collaboration with INTACH on listing and mapping of the natural heritage of Jammu District.
Mandeep Kour, Commission Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department was the chief guest on the occasion. While addressing the gathering, she informed the house that work has already started on the rejuvenation of some of these traditional water bodies and the findings of this study would be helpful in deciding the priority level for management of these water bodies. She invited the department and the INTACH to collaborate with their department and engage students and scholars from the university in the management of these water bodies.
Prof Piyush Malaviya, HoD Environmental Sciences, discussed the importance of such collaborative and integrated studies involving multi-stakeholders for water conservation and management.
Technical session of the event started with keynote presentation by Dr Deepika Slathia, who highlighted the detailed findings of the collaborative study on the ‘Listing and mapping of the traditional water bodies of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) Area’. She informed that around 65 water bodies comprising of ancient wells, step-wells, and ponds have been listed and mapped.
S M Sahni, Convener, INTACH, Jammu Chapter, suggested that these water bodies need to be included in the Smart City Master Plan and the surrounding areas of these water bodies should be developed as green spaces. He stressed upon the need to use traditional knowledge for the restoration, upgradation, and conservation of these water bodies.
Dr C M Seth, former, Chief Conservator of Forests and Co-Convener INTACH, shared his field experiences on various conservation techniques adopted by the rural people.
The formal vote of thanks was delivered by Dr Arvind Kotwal, Coordinator Heritage Tourism INTACH Jammu Chapter. The event was attended by students, scholars and faculty members of various departments of JU.
Narinder Khajuria, Secretary, Urban & Housing Development Department; Hemant Sharma, former Div Com; Arvind Kotwal, Robin Mehta, Director Tourism (Retd), Reshmi Kashyap and Dr Mrinalini Atri were also present on the occasion.
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