Mangaluru : Hostile weather has come in the way of water supply to the popular tourist destination of Dr. Shivaram Karanth Pilikula Nisargadhama. If the scarcity continues for another week, then more than thousand birds and animals under captivity at the Pilikula biological park will be left in the lurch.

The nisargadhama usually lifted over two lakh litres of water each day from the Phalguni (popularly called Gurupura river). As the inflow into the river has decreased, the biological park was now able to pump only about 75,000 litres of water each day.

“We are using water judiciously as we are not able to pump water for the usual six hours a day. We pump water for only two hours,” S.A. Prabhakara Sharma, Executive Director of the nisargadhama, told The Hindu.

Water lifted from the river was exclusively used for animals and birds for drinking, washing and cleaning their enclosures. “Though we have one lakh litre of water in stock for animals and birds it will not last long,” said Mr. Sharma.

H.J. Bhandary, Director, Pilikula Biolgocial Park, said that water from the Phalguni was also being used for sprinkling to keep the animals cool.

“If the weather is not supportive, we will be in real trouble after 10 days,” said Mr. Bhandary.

Mr. Sharma said that the nisargadhama used about 1.5 to 2 million litres of recycled water each day from the sewage treatment plant (STP) of the Mangaluru City Corporation located at Pachchanady.

It was used for watering gardens and not for any other purpose. An official at the nisargadhama said usually it was getting 3 MLD water from the STP. Now its quantity has also come down.

A borewell in the nisargadhama turned dry last month, Mr. Sharma said.

The Executive Director said that water level at Pilikula boating lake was also depleting

. “It appears water is evaporating due to the high temperature. In the 20-ft. deep lake, the water level has gone down by about 5 ft. in the last 10 days,” he said.

The lake water was also being used for watering the garden.