K.G. Gupta
From times immemorial, human beings and animals have roamed about in search of safe and comfortable habitats along the river banks. In ancient times, people who were usually nomads wandering in search of food and water, gradually started living in settlement along the rivers, throughout the world. All the major civilizations developed and flourished along the river sides. Most of the gigantic rivers , their tributaries and the river valleys saw the slow but gradual transition from Paleolitic to present scientific age. All the religious scriptures were narrated and written in these locations situated on the river banks. These river valleys stood witness to the development of great civilizations like Indus Valley Civilization, Vedic Civilization, the Mayan civilization, so on & so forth.
In India there are many mighty rivers but Ganga & Yamuna have played major role in the development of vedic culture and Aryan civilization which ultimately culminated into a religious way of life called Hinduism.
Ganga in particular has played a pivotal role in the life style of the people living in the areas located on both sides of this river. Ganga has been worshipped since thousands of years as mother Ganga. It has rightly been called Jeevan Dayni or life giving and life sustaining Goddess river. The folklore, vedic literatures, Upanishads and Purans are full of hundereds of stories about this holy river which ultimately became the grandmother stories which we Indians have been listening since centuries. The story as to how, Maharishi Bhagirath worshipped Lord Shiva to bring the holy river from heavens to earth, is perhaps known to every child. How ferocious this river can be was visualized by every Indian during the 2013, terrific floods of KedarNath in Utterakhand.
Water of this river was called Amrit or nectar and every Hindu wants to have a dip in these holy waters, at least once in his/her life time. The Ganga water or the holy Ganga Jal is stored and retained in every Indian Household and is used in all religious ceremonies and rituals. The mortal remains or ashes of the most of the hindus in India are immersed in holy water of this river for final salvation or Moksh.
But today, Ganga is a polluterd river. How did this transformation take place from Amrit to Vish? Who is responsible for this alarming situation? Ganga has become a river of total neglect and misuse. Its water is not fit for any human or animal consumption. Waters of Ganga, Yamuna & most other rivers in india contain lot of pollutants which render it unfit for any human or animal consumption.
What are the sources of these pollutants and toxins which are poisoning the holly waters? Some of these factors, which have contributed to the critical situation may be summed up:
* Human beings throw each and everything and anything into the rivers, particularly into the river Ganga.
* All types of left over Pooja samagri, used & unused flowers from temples weighing thousands of tones, left over ashes from havans, other religious ceremonies and rituals are dumped into the river waters.
* Ashes and bones of human beings after cremation are immersed in Ganga.
* Unburnt and half burnt corpses are thrown into ganga for peace to the soul and eternal salvation.
* Corpses of dead animals are directly thrown into Ganga for easy & cheap disposal.
* People defecate and urinate on the banks of rivers. Ganga & Yamuna are no exceptions.
* Domestic litter and garbage filled in polythene bags is thrown into rivers. Polythene in recent years has become a major source of pollution in rivers & canals.
* Population explosion and exodus of people from rural to urban areas has brought into existence mega cities along the banks of Ganga and other rivers. Filthy drain water & sewage from these cities is directly fed into these rivers without proper filtration and chemical treatment, converting these rivers into polluted water bodies . There are 47 big cities situated on the banks of river Ganga including Haridwar, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi. Untreated sewrage is doing tremendous harm.
* These cities and towns located on the banks of river Ganga have developed into big industrial hubs. Large, medium and small scale industries have come up in these cities. The industrial units are discharging harmful, poisonous residual chemicals and toxic fluids into the river Ganga. These industrial pollutants are converting holy ganga into polluted water body.
* Huge sums of money, running into thousands of crores have already been spent by successive governments for cleaning the holy rivers like Ganga & Yamuna, But most of this money has probably been misused without any positive results. Various central & state governments have failed miserably in the past by neglecting the noble cause of cleaning rivers and other water bodies.
Initiative by the present Goverrment
Present BJP Govt. at centre under the leadership of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has taken a big initiative for cleaning of Ganga, Yamuna and other rivers. Mr. Modi has great dreams and also has the capacity and capability to fulfill these dreams. He has successfully accomplished the cleaning of river Sabarmati at Ahmaedabad by using the water of river Narmada. A river front has been developed along the Sabarnati banks.
A long term plan has been formulated for cleaning Ganga and the campaign has been named “Namami Ganga”. A separate ministry has also been created for the Ganga rejuvenation but the task is not so easy. Ganga is not Sabarmati and only a committed effort accompanied by total devotion and dedication by central & state Govts, is needed to accomplish this task.
The Central Govt. has also devised a plan for cleaning of river Yamuna which has the worst pollution level as it flows through National Capital Region. Govt. has a plan to develop a river front in Delhi on the lines of Sabarmati river at Ahmedabad. There is also a propoaal to develop Yamuna as a navigational channel. But cleaning Yamuna is also a challenging task. In addition there are certain bottlenecks as the state governments in utter Pardesh, Delhi and Bihar are unlikely to cooperate in this campaign.
How to achieve this Goal:
The Govt. initiative, alone will not work. Cleaning of rivers has to be converted into a mass movement. Everybody from top to bottom and all the citizens must take part in this initiative. Already Prime Minister has himself participated in cleaning and developing Assi Ghat at Varanasi, but these symbolic sessions will not lead us anywhere in achieving the cherished goal of every Indian.
Steps which ought to be taken:
* Involvement of public at large has to be ensured.
* All NGOs to be advised to contribute financially and through motivation of human resources towards cleansing of all the rivers.
* School level curriculum should be introduced to create awareness about importance of neat and clean rivers.
* The movement to be closely interlinked to “Swach Bharat Abhiyan”.
* All the citizens of India should be educated about the importance of maintaining a neat and clean, healthy environment near the river banks.
* No litter, garbage, polythene bags, pooja samagri and flowers should be thrown/immersed in river bodies.
* Clay statues of Gods/Goddess should not be allowed to be immersed in sea water and rivers. Separate immersion reservoirs could be developed for this purpose.
* Dead bodies of humans and animals should not be allowed to be thrown into holy rivers.
* Stringent laws need to be passed and strictly enforced. Heavy fines to be imposed on persons trying to violate these laws.
* Defecation and urination in open has to be banned throughout the nation particularly in the vicinity of river banks. It is a National shame.
* Youth & student groups should be encouraged to participate in the river cleaning programmes.
* Frequent seminars and lectures should be organized in all educational institutions to create awareness about clean environment and clean rivers.
* Religious heads should be involved to preach the importance of keeping the holy rivers free from filth and dirty waters.
* All industrial units located in big cities along river banks should be legally bound to dump industrial waste , toxic fluid wastes in their own premesis and not to allow any such fluents to be discharged into rivers.
* Channels need to be dug along the river banks to carry sirty water from cities and sewerage fluids directly to the treatment plants. This approach has to be adopted for each and every river in the country so that no filthy water is allowed to flow directly into the water bodies.
An aggressive initiative and a mass public participation can help in achieving the goal of having clean and beautiful rivers in the next ten to fifteen years.
(The author is ex-Principal Govt. Polytechnic & present Principal IECS Polytechnic Jammu)
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