History of Indian civilization is not only of great antiquity, it is also of great colourfulness. A mystique surrounds our ancient civilization. It is the unique mythological fund in which deities and heavenly bodies play significant and often surreal role. A very well known tradition meticulously maintained and kept alive by the Indians from times immemorial is the divinizing of the manifestations of nature, mountains, rivers, glaciers, springs, ponds, pastures even trees and marshes. Major rivers of our country, Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Krishna, Kaveri, Godavari etc. all are carrying great mythological appendages which ancient India not only believed but even perpetuated by ritualistic practice. Nearer home, Vitasta, Sindhu, Chandrabhaga, Tawi (Tuhi of Nilamata) and Devika also have colourful mythological underpinnings and they have become worshipping objects for the believers of Indian mythological fund.
In our mythological lore, Devika is called the elder sister of Ganga, and holier than Ganga so much so that according to the mythology, when sins and misdeeds piled up on earth, the Ganga came to wash all the sins in Devika. Like Ganga, Devika is also considered by the devout as purifier from sins. Thus on particular days of the year, as found by ancient Hindu sages and astronomers, people take a dip in the waters of Devika in the hope that all their sins will be washed and souls purified. T temples are raised along the bank and especially in Udhampur through Devika passes. For hundreds of years this and other temples commemorated the divine story of Devika. It became part of the life and culture of the people of entire area through which it passes.
But how regrettable that the sanctity of Devika and the obeisance of the people to its holiness has been vandalized by the people themselves. From a river of purity, people have turned it into a conduit of garbage, sewage and filth. When the people became callous to the sacrilege of this once holy river, the Udhampur Municipality naturally shunned its responsibility of keeping the river clean of litter and night soil. It took no action against the people who encroached on the land and put the pipes carrying sewage straight into its water. People have massively polluted and desecrated the river and now it has become health hazard. If this appalling condition prevails, the Devika will get extinguished and a heap of litter, silt, garbage etc. will fill it and make the entire environs filthy and obnoxious. Those who have desecrated and polluted this once beautiful river are the culprits of spoiling the environs and they have to be prevented from indulging in such activities. Our people have low sense of environmental purity and taste for preserving the nature in its pristine beauty. Liking for cleanliness and enervating environ is an inborn faculty and these are not inculcated through external instrumentality. There has to be an awakening among the people of how they will maintain the cleanliness of the environs.
The essential issue is of preserving water resources in the State. It is not only Devika that has been polluted; peoples’ selfishness has wrought big disasters to the human population. Our State needs a comprehensive mechanism of preserving water resources and keeping our water bodies safe from pollution. Funds have to be earmarked in annual plans for the districts. There has not been any move from any quarter so far aimed at cleaning Devika and restoring it to purity. This will call for a well-thought plan and has to be executed in stages. But immediately, the District authorities in Udhampur should be able to impose some restrictions on polluting the waters of the river and advising the civilian population that they should approach the Municipality for proper disposal of garbage and waste and not throw it into the river. At the same time the garbage disposal plant in Udhampur has to be made functional. These are preliminary measures that should be taken and simultaneously long range solution of the problem has to be found in a comprehensive plan of cleaning Devika. If people do not insist on it, that would mean they are betraying their tradition of showing due respect and veneration to a river with divinely attributes. Already we have the problem with Tawi into which about 12 nullahs disgorge their polluted water and impurities. The State had a huge Dal preservation project on which hundreds of millions of rupees have been spent. Likewise we need a water resource preservation project for Jammu also.
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