Khazans: Treasure troves of Ecology and Livelihood
Kamat, Nandkumar. (2004). History of Khazan land management in Goa: ecological, economic and political perspective. No conversation about water in Goa can even begin without talking about Khazans. Khazans are pre-Portugese architectural marvels of estuarine agri-systems that were built by excavating reclaimed marshy land and turning them into water reservoirs. This system uses an intricate mechanism of sluice gates and bundhs to stop excessive saline water from intruding the smaller water bodies and the paddy fields. This helps preserve the fertility of the soil and also creates adequate conditions for rich biodiversity to grow in its ecosystem.
A reservoir formed by sluice gates and adjoining paddy fields in Aldona, Goa
STRUCTURE & GOVERNANCE:
Khazans are made by creating openings from the rivers into reclaimed marshy lands and placing wooden sluice gates or ‘manos’ to control the flow of water from the river into the reservoir. The water gathered in the reservoirs is used to irrigate paddy fields and step farms which surround the reservoir but that’s not all, the khazan system is also used for pisciculture and for breeding crabs and prawns, due to the favorable level of salinity in the brackish water of the reservoirs and river.
A bundh between reservoir (on the left) and the river(on the right), made with the excavated silt and clay from the reservoir
The wooden gates (as shown below) of the manos are managed and repaired by Gaonkaris or communidades, which are community-led rural land-associations that have managed the khazan lands since way before the Portuguese rule. Since the pisciculture and prawn/crab cultivation in khazans near the manos is really high, each manos is auctioned by the communidades for as high as 4-5 lakh, a part of this money goes into the repair and management of the manos and bunds while the rest is divided equally into all the land owners and tenants of the khazan lands in the village. Communidades are based on the idea of collective ownership, which make them unique and differentiates them from village communes and other governing bodies.
The ‘teen-manos’ or three gates leading upto a Khazan land in Quitula, Bardez
“The most important aspect of the structure of these lands is based on the principle of salinity regulation and knowledge of the tidal clock. The structure of these lands depends on their distance from the nearest watershed and the tidal estuary. In other words it is the control of balance between the availability and flow of freshwater(rainfall+aquifer):saline (estuarine)water that determines the existence of the Khazan lands.” Kamat, Nandkumar. (2004)
PRESENT SCENARIO:
The Khazan agriculture, pisciculture and salt production combine to make it a hotbed not just for ecological diversity but also for a variety of livelihood opportunities for different communities in the villages. Although, the decreasing focus on labor-intensive paddy farming and increasing demands for fish, crabs and prawns are wrecking havoc on the agriculture in khazans. The paddy fields are often left inundated with water for long stretches of time to increase the fishing activity in the area. This is not only causing loss of fertile agricultural land but also decreasing the natural flood protection that the khazan lands provide to the areas surrounding them.
The situation is further being deteriorated by the increasing pressure to reclaim the Khazan land for urban development projects, like the long standing dispute about Konkan railways and the many highways that run through the length & breadth of the state.
Khazans, as Mr. Nelson Figueiredo the Director of Goa Horticulture Department tells me, “were made by humans to work with nature and not against it”. They are not only unique architectural & ecological heritage but also a great example of decentralized resource management, that have over the time evolved itself from being a landlord-led governance to an all-inclusive system that gives as much rights to tenants and their descendants as it gives to the landlords. With the increasing anthropocentric activities, the pressure on Khazans increases and it might not be long before they are on the verge of vanishing or converting their form and function, just like the traditional water systems in cities like Bangalore have.
Further in the project, I will look into ways in which Khazans can be preserved with all of its multipronged activities and ecology working in tandem with each other.
(With inputs from Sushant Figueiredo )













