Rise and fall of traditional water harvesting systems in India They are called kuhals in Jammu, kuls in Himachal Pradesh and guls in Uttarakhand. The Maharashtrians call them pats . In Ladakh, they are called zings , and in Nagaland, zabo . Tamilians call them eris , Kannadigas, keres . Rajasthanis have tankas , kundis , bawdis , jhalaras and a host of others. Traditional water harvesting systems exist all over India, but after serving the nation for several millennia, they are dying a slow death. Anil Agarwal highlights the key findings of the Fourth Citizens' Report on the State of India's Environment , a product of five years of research, which focuses exclusively on India's water harvesting tradition. The report will be released by the Centre for Science and Environment this month