Borewell costs, increasing demand keep the faith in unproven ‘water diviners’

Shanmugan lifts his veshti and gingerly places his foot on the ground, only to withdraw it and step in a different direction. “It’s stronger over here,” he says more confidently, guided by a chain with a bunch of keys which he grips in his hands. Shanmugan, 47, is on a quest to find groundwater, and according to him, his ability to find it is something of a gift.

Shanmugan is a “water diviner” – someone who searches for groundwater without the aid of scientific instruments or techniques. In the drought-prone district of Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu, his services are immensely popular. “No one will dare dig a borewell without a diviner,” says Ponni, Shanmugan’s neighbour and client from Dhathanaickenpatti village in Dharmapuri.

Water divining, or “dowsing”, is a traditional practice largely regarded as pseudoscience by geologists and hydrologists. Its effectiveness remains controversial, as there is no scientific evidence proving it to be any better than chance.

However, for many living in areas with hard rock, water divining is believed to be the only reliable method to locate groundwater. Given the high cost of drilling a borewell and the scarcity of water supplies, digging a borewell without consulting a diviner is an expensive risk few want to...

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