Seeing the positive response to its pilot Urban Biodiversity Enhancement Programme, under which polluted urban ponds are being given a fresh lease of life through people’s participation, the Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSSB) will soon expand it to more ponds in the city.

 As part of the pilot project of this programme, as Express reported last month, four ponds in the city had been selected and turned over to the respective residents’ associations for their cleaning and restoration. Further, these ponds would be made “urban biodiversity centres” by planting medicinal plants and trees around them.

 “Once the work is completed on these ponds, we will begin on three more we have identified,” said KSBB Chairman Oommen V Oommen, speaking to Express on the sidelines of the World Biodiversity Day observance here on Wednesday. “We have already got applications for about five more ponds.”

 The work on the four pilot ponds - Mangannoorkonam pond, Pattom; Thoppilkulam, Paruthippara; Chaliara pond, Poojappura and NCC pond at Nalanchira - was to be completed by the World Biodiversity Day but work on two of them have exceeded the deadline.

 The Srinagar Residents’ Association of Thoppilkulam, Paruthippara, are seeking extra funds for the final works as the Rs 1.5 lakh sanctioned by the KSBB got used up in rebuilding the boundary wall that got damaged during the cleaning.

 “We have been advised to use biofencing with ‘kaitha’ (screw pine) and ‘ramacham’ for two of the sides,” said R Harikumar, a residents’ association committee member. “We hope to finish the work in the next ten days.”

 Similarly, the Mangannoorkonam pond, Pattom, also has about a week’s work left. Here, it is the residents themselves who have been doing most of the painting and cleaning work.

“We have also planted 17 native medicinal and fruit species, including ‘rudrasham’, ‘asokam’, mango and several species of ‘jamba,’” said S B Krishnakumar, secretary of Pattom Mangannoorkonam Residents’ Association.

 On the other hand, residents of Tilak Nagar, Nalanchira, who live near the roughly 50 cent NCC pond, have been able to stick to the deadline of May 22.

 “We didn’t have any major construction work as the boundary wall had been built a couple of years ago by the Corporation,” said Gopindran Nair, secretary of the association. “We have planted around 160 species of medicinal and flowering plants around the pond.”