If you grew up near a pond, you may remember it by what happened around it: fish breaking the surface, frogs calling after rain, dragonflies hovering over the water, or an egret standing at the edge waiting for a catch.

Across India, these familiar places have different names. In Bengal, there is the pukur; in Rajasthan, the johad; in Tamil Nadu, the eri and kulam; in Karnataka, the kere; in Odisha, the pokhari; elsewhere, you may know one as a talao; and in Assam, there is the beel.

They differ in where their water comes from, how deep they are, how long they hold water and how they change through the seasons. Those differences also shape the fish, frogs, insects, reptiles and birds that live in and around them.

Here are eight examples from across India.

1. Pukur, West Bengal: A whole food chain in one pond

A pukur may sit beside homes, fields or village paths, but there is plenty happening beneath its surface.

Fish feed on algae, plants, insects and smaller organisms. Frogs hunt insects along the edges. Dragonfly and damselfly young spend part of their lives underwater, alongside beetles, mosquito larvae, snails, plankton and other tiny organisms.

Then come the hunters. Water snakes feed on fish and frogs, while kingfishers, pond herons and egrets arrive looking for their next meal.

A freshwater conservation pond in the Sundarbans, for instance, has recorded native fish, frogs, snakes, birds and dozens of varieties of dragonflies and damselflies.

2. Johad, Rajasthan: When rain brings life

A johad........

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