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TISS to the aid of Godess Bhavani for her divine ablutions

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At the ritual bath of a goddess worshiped not only in Maharashtra but across western India, head priest at the Tuljapur Bhavani shrine in Maharashtra's Osmanabad district Kishore Gangane, takes extreme care with the water used. "People are not getting enough water to drink. Surely, she wouldn't want us wasting any."

As the mercury hits 40 across Marathwada, it's not only mere mortals feeling the heat in this parched region. Divinities are no exception, it would seem from the acute water crisis the Tuljapur Bhavani shrine finds itself caught in. This presiding goddess of a large part of western India, who mythology suggests gave her sword to the warrior king Shivaji, fight enemies has been grappling with water scarcity since the 2013 drought.

"We get a floating population of 50,000 plus devotees everyday. The holy tank where devotees take a dip before beginning their worship needs replenishing regularly. Besides this, there are rituals for the goddess itself which needs water in great quantities, not to mention the temple kitchen," explains Sujit Narhare, shrine manager (and Tuljapur tehsildar) of this state government-run shrine.

Given the acute water crisis, Osmanabad collector Prashant Narnavare, asked the Tata Institute of Social Sciences' (TISS) rural campus to help out. The 100-acre campus on the outskirts of the temple town, which stands out for its greenery in the arid region because of its watershed development experiments re-charging ground water. "When the state first gave us a land here in 1986, then director Dr Armaity Desai, insisted it should be a plot no one wants. We used water experts to explore the terrain and struck two perennial borewells. This water has helped us develop the 50 acres of forest as well as the 25 acres of fruit orchards around the campus," recounts S Parsuraman, TISS director.

He adds, "We now have an abundant water storage of over 4.5 lakh litres for not only the 500 plus students and faculty on campus currently, but this can sustain us even when we envisage growing to 1,200 plus by 2017." According to him, "It is this surplus that we are helping the shrine with." In keeping with its motto of "facilitating self-reliance along with helping individuals and communities," the institute has not only been providing water but also shared its water-harvesting know-how with the temple trust. "They will also soon be water self-reliant," hoped Parsuraman.

Though located in a rain-shadow region with high aridity, water-intensive sugarcane, continues to be the preferred crop in the district. Incidentally then Osmanabad collector KM Nagzode had written to the state sugar commissioner (on November 29, 2012) that his district received only 50% of average rainfall, and water levels in dams were extremely low while ground water hadn't been replenished. "Since a sugar factory uses at least a lakh litres of water daily, it'd be advisable to suspend crushing and divert harvest to neighbouring districts." However, such orders were never given and cane crushing went on. With over 25,100 hectares under it, the Osmanabad ironically, is a major sugarcane producer thanks to hogging all the irrigation.

Parsuraman hopes that communities will pick up better water management based on what they see at the campus and the temple shrine. A thought shared by head priest Kishore Gangane as drapes the goddess in her silken raiments. "After all water is life," he says. The goddess smiles.

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