So dry is the pond that after the NMC cleaned the concrete base of the water body, children took it as an opportunity to play cricket there.
Given the water scarcity in the state this year, the pond at Ramkund in Nashik has dried up like never before. There is no previous record whatsoever of the pond at the famous religious site having ever dried up completely, up until now. This has left pilgrims disappointed, with activists and priests busy suggesting solutions to the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) to replenish the water there.
So dry is the pond that after the NMC cleaned the concrete base of the water body, children took it as an opportunity to play cricket there.
Thousands of devotees congregate in Ramkund to take a bath in the holy pond, while many go there to perform the last rites of their relatives. But, the dry pond is now a huge source of disappointment for them. Even though the main parvanis of the Kumbhmela celebrated there are over, some important dates are yet to be observed as part of the year-long festival. There are also a number of occasions throughout the month during which people take a holy dip in the Ramkund pond. For now, all these activities have come to a complete stop.
Even those who go to Ramkund to immerse the ashes of their deceased relatives are having a tough time. The asthikund, where the ashes are immersed in a seven-odd-foot-deep natural spring, has only minimal water left in it.
"The problem stems from the concretisation of the bed of the water body, which was done during the Kumbhmela in 2003. Unless this concerete is removed, the natural springs there will not open up. And at such times of crisis, the natural springs are the only source of water," said Satish Shukla, the president of the Shree Ganga Godavari Panch Koti Purohit Sangh in Nashik.
Shukla added that there are three wells next to a temple below the Victoria bridge. These have been blocked for a while after some people fell in and drowned. Shukla suggested that these wells are now opened up so that the water contained therein can be pumped into the river.
Devand Jani is an activist who has filed a PIL to remove the concrete from the bed of the Godavari river that flows through the city and open up the natural springs below it. He said: "The Nashik gazetteer mentions that the river had dried up in 1877, but even then Laxmankund, adjacent to Ramkund, had water from its natural sources. It was not completely dry like it is now."
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