218. If the Director of Medical and Health Services certifies that the cultivation of any description of crops or the use of any kind of manure or the irrigation of land in any specified manner.
(a) in a place within the limits of a rural area is injurious of facilitates practices which are injurious to the health of persons dwelling in the neighborhood, or
(b) in a specified place within the rural area is likely to contaminate the water supply of such specified place or otherwise render it unfit for drinking purposes, the [Zila Panchayat] may by public notice prohibit the cultivation of such crop, the use of such manure or the use of the method of irrigation so reported to be injurious, or impose such conditions with respect thereto as may prevent the injury or contamination :
Provided that when, on any land in respect of which such notice is issued, the act prohibited has been practiced in the ordinary course of husbandry for the five successive years next preceding the date of prohibition compensation shall be paid from the Zila Nidhi to all persons interested therein for damage caused to them by such prohibition.