All the top officials The Indian Express spoke to denied that there was anything amiss with the dam. However, a walk down the stretch of the dam under its tall, imposing wall by an The Indian Express team, accompanied by several locals, only proved otherwise.

Crossing the partially dry rocky bed on the dam across the Mahisagar, the team reached the `bucket' of the dam to find a meandering crack more than two feet long on the wall. There was also a small crack on the floor of the `bucket'; stone blocks were missing at several places on the wall. At least 15 spots showed some kind of ageing, pointing to inadequate and irregular maintenance.

This reporter had to virtually scrub off the fungus -- caused by the water-- around the crack to see it better. The water from the crack had collected in a pool at the bottom.

Subsequently, the The Indian Express team found the water level upstream to be 217.75 feet. With no rains, and water from the Kadana dam in Panchmahals district mainly diverted to canals for irrigation, there is no force behind the water. Yet, the water was seeping through.

So, is the dam in any danger? This question was asked to those in charge; the answers were revealing. ``There is no question (of danger). We are very vigilant about everything. And why should there be any danger? There is absolutely no crack anywhere on the dam, there cannot be. You have wrong information,'' said Assistant Engineer and Section Officer G S Dave, who is in charge of the dam. Asked what sort of crack could affect the dam, Dave said: ``Even a hair-line crack can prove dangerous. I regularly visit the dam. If there is a crack I would have seen it and done the needful. No, there is no crack at all.'' He said he had visitedthe dam a week ago. Pointing to a picture of the dam on the wall, he asked, ``Can you see any crack? And this is a detailed picture, taken just two months ago by a camera that would have cost not less than Rs 1.5 lakh.''

Asked about a spot on the picture where a stone block was missing, he said, ``Oh, that is nothing. There is only one like that. Still, we have to fill it up quickly and that will be done before the monsoons.'' The dam, he pointed out, had lasted 40 years and was considered to be the strongest of the State's old dams. ``It will last its full 100-year life. It is the pride of Gujarat, it cannot erode so soon. Rest assured, my seniors and I are monitoring it regularly.'' His senior Deputy Executive Engineer N R Patel too denied there were cracks. ``Had there been a crack, we would have to vacate all water from the dam and get the crack immediately plugged, and we would have done it already. Someone has given you wrong information.''

M K Sutaria, Vadodara-based Joint Director of Dam Safety inthe State-run Gujarat Engineering Research Institute, said, ``Our job is to inspect major dams regularly every three years. But we have not been able to go to Wanakbori.'' Asked when he last carried out an inspection at Wanakbori, Sutaria said, ``For that I would have to check the records.''

Asked what would happen if there was a crack and water trickled out at this point of time, he said nothing would, because the water level was at least 10 feet below the top of the dam and there was no inflow. ``If the pressure increases, the danger increases. But there is no crack.''