WORK BEING DONE ON CREATING WETLAND AT VILLAGE BADBAR
WETLAND WILL CONSERVE BIODIVERSITY, ENCOURAGE ECO-TOURISM
Raghvir Happy , Barnala, Feb 1 :2023
In order to arrest the receding underground water table and increase biodiversity, the district administration Barnala is coming up with first man made wetland in village Badbar, in Dhanaula sub tehsil area.
Giving information about this, the Deputy Commissioner Barnala Mrs Punamdeep Kaur, IAS stated that taking giant leaps in contributing towards greener district, the district administration has carried out plantation at large scale and is now working on creating first mad made wetland at village Badbar. She said that the biggest challenge today was to arrest the receding underground water table. With the laying of this wetland, administration aims at increasing underground water table level in this area that also has protected forest (bir) of the forest department. The work is a collaboration of forest department and department of rural development.
ADC (Development) Mr Paramvir Singh, IAS said that Rs 60 lacs are being spent under NREGA to dig pond for the wetland. He added that Punjab is already home to natural wetlands like Ropar, Nangal, Keshopur Chamb, Harike Pattan etc. However, Badbar will be the first ever man made wetland.
He added that the motive of this project was to increase biodiversity of the area and increase underground water level. A pond is being dug in around 3 acres of land, which is located on the land of forest department and 50 percent of the digging work has been completed. Including wetland area, the forest department has around more than 350 acres of land. The wetland will be given water supply from Longowal distributary for which sanction has been accorded and forest department will construct water siphon off point.
Wetland will give an impetus of biodiversity, Meet Hayer
The Minister for Science and Technology Mr Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said that with the construction of this wetland, biodiversity in area will increase and underground water will be re-charged. He added that this shall also open avenues for eco-tourism.
