Published Paper Details:

Tanks are part of an ancient tradition of harvesting and preserving the local rainfall and water from canals and rivers for later use, primarily for agriculture and drinking water, but also for sacred bathing and ritual. Often a tank was constructed across a slope so to collect and store water by taking advantage of local mounds and depressions. Tank use is especially critical in parts of South India without perennial rainfall where water supply replenishment is dependent on a cycle of dry seasons alternating with monsoon seasons. The tanks are many centuries old and managed mainly by the community as most of the tanks are small in size. The system of managing tanks through community participation is also many Centuries old. But, the performance of tanks has been deteriorating over the years owing to various reasons. Tank irrigation system is less capital intensive and has wider acceptance compared to major irrigations. Tanks can be effectively used for development of backward areas. The main motivation of this paper is to examine the importance of tanks, types of Tanks and role of tank irrigation in Pondicherry.