Achyutha Bhat in front of a suranga / Photo credit: Shree Padre / India Together
Like surangas, the man-made tunnels for water, 79-year-old Achyutha Bhat, whose passion for surangas is half a century old, is lesser known outside.
It was Manimoole Achyutha Bhat, an arecanut farmer's family that brought this traditional water harvesting system to the village Manila in Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka.
Thanks to this system, today including Bhat, many neighbouring farmers have no water shortage.
Achyutha Bhat's family had nearly 20 surangas dug in their property. Fourteen out of this are still serving them. Surangas provide them water not only for irrigation, but for drinking and domestic purposes too.
What's more, they don't have to spend a single paisa for diesel or electricity to get this water. All the water is free flowing - tapped due to gravitational pull.
In the 15-acre barren hill slope the family got decades ago, five acres containing arecanut and coconut gardens stands today, courtesy these surangas.
No other water body like open well is feasible here because of the slope and soil type. "If and when we foresee some water scarcity, we go for one more suranga”, explains son Govinda Bhat, 51.
"They dig one suranga each year", is how the villagers talk about Manimoole. Though this is an exaggeration, points out a smiling Achyutha Bhat. "After my marriage at 21, four consecutive years might not have passed without us getting a suranga dug”, he says.
As the land is sloping, cultivation is possible only by leveling plots at different heights. What Bhats do is a much planned, decentralised system of irrigation.
Before leveling a plot, they dig out a suranga at least 25 feet above that. Once they strike water, the plot levelling goes on. The water oozing out of the suranga is collected in an earthen tank and irrigation done by mist jets.
Thus they ensure pump less irrigation to all their plots. They have six water tanks today. A few out of these are inter-connected too.
"Fortunately, we are blessed with water within 50 kolu (one kolu means 2.5 feet) if we dig suranga after careful divining," Govinda Bhat says proudly.
His calculation is simple. "For a 50 kolu suranga, we need Rs.15,000 as per present wage rate. But once we spend that, there is no worry thereafter. No recurring expenditure. Neither we need to bring diesel nor to bear with the long power cuts."
Achyutha Bhat was fascinated by this water harvesting structure since his childhood. It was in the nearby village Padre where he was learning Sanskrit that he first saw a suranga.
So, when Bhat was aged 10, the Malayalee moplahs from Kerala were brought to dig the first suranga in the village. By seeing the process of digging, this family learnt its intricacies. Thereafter, there was no looking back.
In most of the cases, the farmer's dig surangas in their own land. However - very rarely - it might go beneath the neighbour's land like a metro train line. At present suranga digging does not need permission from the panchayat or any other body.
Obsessed with surangas
Achyutha Bhat was attracted to surangas for many reasons. First, it would provide ever flowing water. Second, since the water flows out of gravity, no other energy or fuel is required.
Step by step, he mastered all the departments of suranga digging like water divining, going on digging with a small gradient, bringing the dug lose soil out, sensing danger while digging, changing the direction of the suranga, if needed to obtain water etc.
According to an estimate, today Manila village would be having more than 300 surangas. It has a total of 480 houses. "Almost half of the houses have at least one suranga for their drinking water purpose”, says Govinda Bhat.
"Digging surangas is not such a skill that can't be learnt by anybody. With hard work and common sense, anybody can for that matter," reassures Achyutha Bhat.
Interestingly he doesn't entrust the suranga digging to professionals. He gets it done by the regular ordinary workers by giving them incentives. This way, in the last half century, at least two dozens of farm labourers have learnt the art of digging surangas here.
Manimoole can be very well described as a 'gurukula for surangas.' "Of course, those who learn the skill from here have been called to dig more and more surangas," says Govinda Bhat.
Bio-indicators
Achyutha Bhat has also gained the capacity to identify the points for digging surangas.
How does he do that? "Generally, I look out for water indicator trees such as dhoopada mara (Vateria indica), basari mara (Ficus virens), etc. Even the fast growing uppalige mara (Macranga indica) is an indicator. Termite hills on a row is another indication," he says.
At 79, Achyutha Bhat is still very active. Laughs Govinda Bhat, "he has this habit of entering the suranga after the labourers have left and digging for half an hour. His enthusiasm to look out for water can't be dampened. Even if we start a new suranga tomorrow, I'm sure; he will join hands with workers once a while."
Dying skill
Of late, digging of surangas is on decline in villages where this was in practice earlier.
Reasons are many. One being the introduction of bore well machines that dig a well in a single day. Numbers of skilled workers who can dig surangas are decreasing. They get better remuneration in other works like in new rubber plantations.
There is risk in suranga digging. Though rare, injury or death by collapsing in surangas while digging has happened in the past.
Yet in Manila and neighbouring Bayaru village of Kerala, it has not completely reached to grinding halt. Once in a while a suranga is dug here and there.
Govinda Bhat is optimistic. He doesn't think that the skill of digging surangas would die in near future. "So far as those interested in getting surangas dug are there, it won't die. It won't die for the want of diggers," he confides.
Interestingly, half of the houses in the village have a hill on the back or front. This is a pretty ideal situation for surangas.
Achyutha Bhat feels that there is still scope to dig more surangas in the village.
"If the banks start giving loans for this purpose, there would be more takers. Why can't they finance this traditional, proven sustainable system than financing bore wells that aren't dependable?" he asks.
In Manila, though there are about 200 bore wells, according to Govinda Bhat, only about a dozen are yielding water.
Achyutha Bhat who brought surangas to Manila has not only been instrumental in extending it to the whole village, he has also kept the tradition alive for decades by training many newcomers.
