Ponds a Dying Civilisation of Kandi Belt of Jammu

Dr Rakesh Verma

rakeshforests@gmail.com

In the undulating foothills that stretch like a living hem along the Shivalik range, the kandi belt of Jammu carries an ancient wisdom about water, soil, trees, and community. Here, ponds are not incidental depressions in the earth; they are deliberate, enduring, shared institutions-built by hands, held in faith, and kept alive by habit. The Dogra countryside has long referred to them as talabs, chappads and sars, a vocabulary that conveys not merely a physical form but a social purpose. To understand the kandi, one must begin with the ponds: their historical genesis, the cultural frames that sustain them, their spiritual resonance, their agricultural necessity, and the living green crowns of peepal, bargad, and kadam trees that guard their margins