Like in many parts of the State, this is the third consecutive drought year in the Koppal region. With water sources drying up, water availability for agriculture is a distant dream. While people are somehow managing to get water for household use, it has become very difficult to obtain required water and food for domestic and wild animals.
The fate of these creatures touched the youth of a couple of villages near Kushtagi in Koppal district and they have been providing water and fodder to the animals for the last two years. As many as 12 youngsters have been engaged in this animal welfare activity under the banner of Sai Seva Trust. They have set up concrete water storage structures near the dried-up Doddahalla, which was once the lifeline of these villages. There are eight such structures in three different places.
They clean and fill these tanks everyday through tankers. Their morning walks also serve the purpose of observing the water levels in these structures and estimating the number of animals that might have come there to drink water. "We feel happy when we empty tanks which means more animals have come here to drink water,” says Krishna Kandakur, a volunteer. Though the concrete ponds were meant for wild animals, even domestic animals use them.
While animals like monkey, rabbit, squirrel and birds stop here to quench their thirst in the daytime, bear, fox, wolf etc visit the place in the night. The team has placed branched out wooden sticks near the water srorage ponds for the birds to perch on them.
