Log in
EN हिंदी
Bajrang Lal Jaithu
← All heroes
Environment & water · Rajasthan

Two ponds that changed a teacher's life

On election duty, a government schoolteacher saw two village ponds: one left to dry, one cared for by its people. Bajrang Lal Jaithu has spent the decades since trying to make every pond the second kind.

Bajrang Lal Jaithuबजरंग लाल जैथू
WhatsApp X Facebook

Bajrang Lal Jaithu receives the National Water Award from President Droupadi Murmu, 2025. Photo: via NDTV Rajasthan

Listen to this story0:00 / 2:27
Narrated with an AI voice
Home
Jethwa ka Bas, Fatehpur, Sikar, Rajasthan
Work
Reviving traditional ponds and rainwater harvesting
Began
1990s (regional reports say around 1993)
Honour
6th National Water Award: West Zone, first
50+old ponds revived (regional reports)
~350rainwater structures (regional reports)
1strank, West Zone, Best Individual

The wisdom of the talab

Bajrang Lal Jaithu’s story is tied to an old water wisdom of Rajasthan’s Shekhawati and Marwar regions, where ponds, johads, stepwells and local catchments are not just structures but the base of community life. The Ministry of Jal Shakti’s 6th National Water Awards list names him first in the West Zone for “Best Individual for Excellence in Water Sector”. When President Droupadi Murmu honoured him in November 2025, decades of local work reached the national stage.

Two ponds

Most of the detailed story of his work comes from regional reporting in Rajasthan. According to these reports, around 1993, while on election duty in Nagaur as a government teacher, he saw a neglected, dried-up pond and, nearby, another that the community had looked after. That contrast set him on a long path of repairing traditional water bodies with people’s participation.

A 2026 regional report describes about 32 years of work, the revival of more than 50 old ponds in Sikar, Nagaur and Churu, around 350 rainwater-harvesting structures, and awareness work with students. These numbers are not in the award citation. What is firmly verified is that his work was strong enough for the Ministry of Jal Shakti to give him the top individual award in the West Zone after its evaluation.

Old knowledge, new debate

He has also tried to bring traditional water systems into today’s debates on water security. A Development Alternatives report from India Water Week 2024 records his paper on “Traditional Water Resource: Talab”.

Many big public missions begin not with theory but with one concrete local observation. Building a structure is not enough: a pond lives only when its community owns and maintains it.

Sources