Nayphal pond, a small water body in a village near Ghaziabad, was a grave health and environmental crisis for the people residing around it. In 2020, a sheath of algae covered the pond, but was hardly visible to the naked eye. Discarded clothes, torn shoes, plastic bags and other domestic waste formed a thick layer over the algae. The pond, located right next to a school, was never seen as a health hazard or an environmental risk by the villagers, and was just a mounting dumping ground for waste.
Tucked away behind swanky high-rise residential buildings, the residents of Nayphal village are now labouring to ensure the cleanliness and health of a pond that their rural community now prizes. The 9,500 square metre pond is today a beautiful sight, but dotted by various plantations of onion, garlic and other flowering plants.
Ramveer Tanwar, an environmentalist with his team of 11 volunteers cleaned the pond for a year, which at the end of 2021 — breathed a new life. In the thick of the pandemic, his team ensured that the disease-pool was resuscitated into a water body.
Ramveer, also known as ‘The Pond Man of India’ has so far, revived 48 ponds across the country while he and his NGO ‘Say Earth’ continue their endeavour across six states. His team is currently working in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, reviving two other lakes in Bengaluru and simultaneously working on a project in Haryana.
Now well-known as a popular water conservationist, Ramveer tells ThePrint, “For me, it wasn’t always about ponds or water bodies. The sense of awareness was always more important to me. We must shift the focus on why we should save our natural resources.”
An engineering graduate, Ramveer left his job at Cyient, an MNC, to work for his cause full time. “I used to frequently work with NGOs on the side and do cleanliness drives for ponds, but I later realised that if I wanted to bring about real change, it is a full-time job that needs all my attention.”
Ramveer is now also an urban-forest development consultant with the Municipal Corporation of Ghaziabad.
Once a muddy morass, in which carcasses of dogs, cats, buffalos and Nilgais would often cause a strong stench in the air, Nyphal pond is where birds flock to, and ducks reside in.
“Earlier, one could not even see a drop of water from the pond because it was so heavily polluted. Because of the strong smell, even standing next to the pond was not possible,” Ramveer says about Nayphal in its earlier days.
Ramveer’s team continues to closely monitor the state of Nayphal pond, to ensure that it does not become polluted again. Villagers claim that Tanwar’s team still comes to the pond from time to time to check it, and use insect repellants to ensure moths don’t crowd over it.
Not just that, but a renewed civic sense of the villagers of Nayphal is also what is keeping the pond clean today. Cases of malaria and dengue, residents say, were rampant in the village, which have now dipped after the pond’s cleanup. Residents consciously do not take their cattle into the water anymore, and ensure that their waste generated goes in garbage disposal carts that come every morning in the village now.
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A renewed civic sense
Ever since the pond’s clean up in 2021, Nyphal’s residents have strictly ensured that they do not dirty the man-made water body again. Every morning, a dumping cart cruises across the streets, as people come out and deposit their trash, as opposed to throwing it in the pond.
“The pond which was earlier just a dumpyard, is now beautiful to look at. The water level has also risen. Every morning, people from the village make sure they throw their waste into the municipal vehicle without polluting the pond. However, there is still a brook right next to the pond, where people sometimes still throw waste packets,” says Preeti, who lives about six houses away from the pond.
Around the pond, one can now also see various trees, plants, vegetables and flowers growing. Growing vegetation around the pond was a tactic used by Ramveer and his team to make sure that villagers would continue to respect the water body. Moreover, as villagers water the plants, the surrounding trees also get watered, keeping the area lush.
“While the municipal board and Tanwar sir have done a good job of cleaning the pond, it is the people of the village who are now watering these plants and caring for them like our own children,” says Bobby, another resident of the village.
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Aiding Ramveer’s team
Ramveer’s small team received wide community support over the course of that one year. From escaping red tapism, to acquiring vehicles for the cleanup, Ramveer credits much of his success to the Municipal Corporation Ghaziabad. “Without the municipal commissioner at the time, Mahendra Singh Tawar, none of this would have been possible,” he says. The villagers claim that Tawar also helped clean up a nearby cemetery.
But in Ramveer’s ode of gratitude, the villagers of Nyphal don’t lag behind. Changing the mindset of all the villagers is a major task that his team took up along with some residents who lived near the pond.
“There was a very strong-knit unit of those living near the pond, who would consciously tell women and others who came to dump waste in the pond — to not throw it there and go back. We worked like a chain, and we still are, to make sure the pond remains clean,” says Kanwerpal Singh, a Physical Education teacher at a government school in Delhi who lives right by the pond. Their constant commitment to the cause, is what ultimately helped Ramveer complete this task.
Even though there was resistance from some villagers who wanted to use the surrounding land as an area for car parking and were not ready to budge, a section of aware villagers and Ramveer’s team effectively convinced them to keep that land empty and dirt-free.
“Revival is not easy, but making the whole process sustainable is,” says Ramveer as he talks about ensuring that this gargantuan cleanup was not just a temporary fix. He says that the villagers also helped clean up the walking track that surrounds the pond.
The former dump in the middle of Nayphal is now a self-sustaining wetland that attracts a variety of migrating birds and aquatic life. The village’s sewage water is now piped here, treated and then dumped into the pond.
Instead of algae and domestic waste, filtration systems and floating water purifiers now populate the pond. Two small islands have also been created in the pond that birds usually perch upon. Barbed wire fencing has been installed around the pond, to make sure that animals don’t invade the area.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)