Water divining: Not scientific but still popular

CHENNAI: CN Gunapathy prefers to be silent as he walks along the compound wall of a house in Thaneer Pandhal, Coimbatore, looking for the perfect point for the drilling of a borewell. In his hand is a coconut. Almost half-an-hour later, just as the land owners and onlookers start frowning, the coconut in a slanting position in the man's hands stands straight. And Gunapathy marks out the spot on the ground where he says the borewell should be drilled. Water diviners like Gunapathy are an integral part of the process of the construction of a building. But the technique many of them use - water dowsing - has no scientific validity. Groundwater experts say the borewell drill spots they select are completely random whereas diviners - some of who have a scientific background - insist their predictions are accurate. 

One may call them pseudo-scientists, but they are still the "experts" that farmers and those constructing a building turn to before deciding the location for their borewell. "Diviners charge anywhere between Rs 500 to Rs 10,000 to find water and places where the supply is long lasting," says G Thiagharajan, a water diviner in Coimbatore. 

Water diviners use a technique called dowsing that uses a variety of objects like coconuts, pots of water, and L-shaped sticks made of wood or metal. The most widely used object is a bullet-like piece of metal suspended on a long chain. The material can be brass, copper, silver or gold."Certain metals work on certain types of soil, like brass is good for red soil," says Gunapathy. 

Water diviners say these objects start rotating by themselves when held above the point where groundwater is easily available. Dowsers have a theory of how it works. "We believe that the human body is an electromagnetic field and blood is charged with electricity. When this body comes across hydro-power it forms another circuit for electricity, creating the energy for spinning the objects," says Thiagharajan, who is a former public works department geologist. 

Diviners are often put in the category of astrologers, reiki practitioners and pranic healers. "People ask a lot of logical questions to make us look like frauds, but that has not stopped the steady flow of clients," said Venkateshwar, another diviner. "This is a power and an art," says 80-year-old Gunapathy, who learned "water divining" at the age of 58 from a master diviner in Hosur. 

A Veerappan, a groundwater expert formerly with PWD, says divining is unscientific. He recommends a geophysical survey that would predict groundwater depth and availability through scientific methods. He says people should approach the office of the groundwater branch of Tamil Nadu PWD at Taramani, Chennai, or the Central Groundwater Board at Rajaji Bhavan in Chennai to get groundwater information for a particular area. 

Veerappan says private players too conduct geophysical surveys of land areas. For a fee, they use a technique called electrical resistivity method to make predictions.