Nehru says,

‘My desire to have a handful of my ashes thrown into the Ganga at Allahabad has no religious significance, so far as I am concerned. I have no religious sentiment in the matter. I have been attached to the Ganga and Januna [Jumna] Rivers in Allahabad ever since my childhood and, as I have grown older, this attachment has also grown. I have watched their varying moods as the seasons changed, and have often thought of the history and myth and tradition and song and story that have become attached to them through the long ages and become part of their flowing waters. The Ganga, especially, is the river of India, beloved by her people, round which are intertwined her racial memories, her hopes and fears, her songs of triumph, her victories and her defeats. She has been a symbol of India’s age‐long culture and civilizatiton, ever changing, ever flowing, and yet ever the same Ganga. She reminds me of the snow‐covered peaks and the deep valleys of the Himalayas, which I have loved so much, and of the rich and vast plains below, where my life and work have been cast’.

My cultural association with Ganga

I was born in a place which is the confluence of two small rivers, tributaries of the Ganga (Ganges), and from where river Kho, begins its journey which is a tributary of Ram Ganga river. The first time I saw Ganga at Muni-ki-Reti and Lakshman Jhula near Rishikesh was when I was just a seven year-old child. The first sight of the Ganga mesmerised me. Then I realised how the Ganga is part and parcel of life of people in Uttarakhand.

I was perplexed to see that movement to protect Ganga did not get any public sympathy in Uttarakhand. I did not understand why a state where the Ganga is so deeply rooted in our psyche remain untouched to the atrocities being committed on it in the name of ‘development’. Was there a disconnect between people and ‘intellectuals’ or ‘experts’ as usually happens everywhere? The result of this questioning is this journey. I have tried to cover every part, every confluence that Ganga had with its tributaries and distributaries.

The Ganga in the Himalayas

I started the journey in September 2021 trekking from Gangotri to Bhojwasa on the way to Gaumukh. I traversed on my path almost all the major rivers of Uttarakhand including Yamuna, Tons, Gauriganga, Kali-Sharda etc. Prior to that, I travelled to all the Prayags and the valleys of the beautiful Dhauli Ganga, Mandakini, Nandakini, Pinder, Alaknanda and Bhagirathi. That made this journey unique. It took nearly four years and this was truly not merely a journey touching some spots only to return but an attempt to understand the crisis faced by the Ganga and its tributaries.

From Gangotri till Bay of Bengal, I saw a massive civilizational crisis emerging. If that is not addressed, we will –all–be in deep trouble. Ganga is the largest river of India and its plain is the most fertile land where farmers have flourished and millions of people depending on water, gained life and livelihood. The bio diversity of the river Ganga remains unparalleled.

Chipko Movement

In Uttarakhand, the Ganga and its tributaries face threat from various hydropower projects because they snatch the beauty of the river, control its water and impact the rich bio-diversity of the river.

A travel to Niti Valley and Lata and Raini villages,  the epicenters of the Chipko movement, gave me the idea of what is wrong with those who romanticise a movement without understanding it’s nature. The Chipko movement was the cry of the native communities for their access to forest produce which they used to enjoy prior to the Indo-China war 1962 when people had access to the Tibetan market and vice versa. There was a huge market for domestic products, forest produce etc. A large number of villagers got dislocated and all the passes to Tibet were closed. The other side of the story is that government continued with the British policy of auctioning the forests. So every year, the Symonds company would obtain the forest produce, chop the trees mercilessly and take them out of the state. Gaura Devi and her Saathis protested against this in Raini and threw the contractors out. This was welcomed by all in Uttarakhand and the movement gained prominence. H.N Bahuguna, the chief minister, called some of the ‘activists’, mostly the Brahmanical elite, to Lucknow for a conversation. The auctioning to ‘privates’ was stopped by a new entity (boss) was created which was the ‘Uttar Pradesh Van Nigam’. This made the lives of the people even more miserable. While many people got name and fame internationally, the native (indigenous) people fighting had to resort to ‘Chheeno Jhapto’ movement to gain the access to forest. H N Bahuguna therefore emerged as the biggest villain of the piece who actually looked down upon this movement and tried to sabotage it.

The problem with the intellectuals and their devotees in the media is that they ignored that the essence of the movement that was essentially led by Adivasis-janjati people. The history of the Chipko movement is that of those people, the Bhutiyas and others but their issues and role were conspicuously obliterated from the popular discourse. The movement was superficially romanticised as a ‘protection of trees and ‘environment’. World over, it is the indigenous communities who are dependant on forests and it is they who nurture it. No community would ever nurture mountains and rivers without using the resources. This needs to be understood. That the relationship between native communities and nature is their interdependence; this issue was grossly ignored and underestimated by the environmental elite.

Ganga and its various tributaries shine through Uttarakhand. The confluences of different rivers are unparalleled and stunning. Sadly however this will all disappear once different barrages and dams that are proposed actually start functioning. There was a beautiful Sangam of Bhilangana with Bhagirathi at Tehri which is not visible now. There is a beautiful Sangam of river Gori with Kali at Joljibi in Pithoragarh. If the Pancheswar dams comes through, then some of these beautiful places and confluences will disappear. The Sangam of Rupin and Supin river at Netwar in Uttarakhand which start the journey of Tons is supremely beautiful but a dam near the confluence is bound to finish them off. Nobody can deny the importance of energy but we also need to think that the Himalayas and its rivers are not merely our ‘resource’ but also our heritage, our identity particularly for the people living in these regions. So, my simple point to the power elite is stop destroying our identity. A destruction of the Himalayas will bring unprecedented crisis to Gangetic plains in India and so, we must not do anything that escalates the crisis we already facing.

The crisis in the Gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh

The Gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh will suffer in future with acute desertification. The Ganga loses its shine once it enters Balawali, Bijnor district. Travel to this region and onward during the summer, and you will realise how the Ganga water has drastically reduced and agricultural land and green pastures have been converted into a desert. Already. Water at Garhmukteshwar remain merely for the rituals and the pollution is increasing exponentially. By the time, it reaches Kannauj and has its first confluence with Ramganga, you can walk through the river Ramganga. Reaching the confluence has been difficult because of changing embankment of the river. A local farmer told me at the confluence that it is not the ‘kheti (farming) but ‘reti’ (sand mining) which is rampant and ‘source’ of earning for even the farmers. This reflects the sad state of the crisis.

A few kilometers onwards, we are at historic place Bithoor which is now more known as a ‘religious’ place and to ensure that magnetism of religion. Suddenly, you really feel wonderful to see ‘water’ in the river. A couple of boats are visible and again we see the beauty of the river Ganga but our fear are confirmed. About seven kilometers from Bithoor is the Ganga Barrage on the Kanpur Unnao border. While there is enough water to quench your religious thirst at Bithoor, at Kanpur the river looks dry with huge sand beds on both banks. You won’t be able to recognise the river from the original embankments. Moreover, Kanpur which is called the Manchester of the East, is actually, contributing a huge quantity of ‘sewage’ water to Ganga making it look like the Sewage tributary of the Ganga. The river stinks on the ghats. It is very disturbing to see that ‘Ghats’ that have been constructed with money from the ‘Namami Gange’ project but no efforts are visible to improve the plight of the holy river. All it reflects that we want to worship the river from a nice built-up place of concrete but don’t really care about the existential crisis that the river is facing.

The patch between Allahabad and Varanasi via Vindhyanchal is beautiful and water less contaminated perhaps because of the Yamuna which is bigger in Allahabad and carries more water from Chambal in it which is definitely an unpolluted river. At Varanasi, however, we see the devastating pollution in the river. We are told that two ‘rivers’ flow into Ganga in Varanasi, the Assi Ganga and Varuna.  A visit to the ‘confluence’ of them only reveals the pathetic hypocrisy of those who call them ‘rivers. They have been turned into absolute sewage ‘rivers’, and further pollute the Ganga.

Ganga at Varanasi

At Varanasi the Mahaarti has been commercialised. It has become a ‘light and sound show’ with no real spiritual power which it used to emit once upon a time. Big moneyed people use the trawlers and cruise to watch the spectacle while the normal, common humans have to pay huge sum to watch it from the back. It was definitely a sad scenario.

Between Varanasi to the Gomti Ganga Sangam is again a pathetic sight. There is no water in the Gomti and it is much polluted river. There are lots of birds on the island zones in the Sangam. Ganga’s entry into Bihar is via Buxar and just a few kilometers before the city is Chausa, a historic town where Sher Shah Suri’s forces had defeated Humanyun. The so-called memorial is nothing but a ‘selfie park’. All memorial and historical places are carefully being converted into amusement parks everywhere and mythological characters are being re-created as historical figures and events. Again, the Karmnasha-Ganga confluence shows the terrible state of agriculture in the region. I was there during the deadly heat of June and the Karmnasha looked like a dry stream flowing into Ganga. Agricultural land showed sign of ‘cracks’ even when we would see numerous birds chirping near the confluence. Sewage continues to flow into the river in Buxar too.

Massive sand mining in Bihar

But the biggest challenge, I saw on our rivers was at a historic place called Chirand in Saran district where the Ghadhra and Son[1] rivers flow into the Ganga. The confluence zone has shifted a few kilometers again. From Revelganj to Chirand, on the National High way, a huge smoke of dust welcomes you apart from huge lane of big trucks used for carrying Sand. On the banks of river Ghaghara, which local call Saryu, you can see hundreds of cargo streamers used for carrying sand from the river. Any person who is not habitual of staying in these zones, would just collapse as breathing become impossible. The Red Sand from river Son is the most popular. It is also a fact that Sand mafia has political protection. It is time for sensitization of people as well as stricter environmental norms imposed otherwise this region too wait for a catastrophe. Similar conditions can be seen around Hariharpur Sonpur area where Ganga and Narayani Gandaki conflate. Sonepur was famous for the cattle fair but that is a thing of past now. It is merely a fair which is more as a recreational ‘time pass’ for the locals and others who visit the famous shrine at Hariharpur.

The river Ganga in Patna looks polluted. Patna itself is a polluted city. From there until Munger, we can see the Ganga splitting at various places and huge sandy river beds everywhere. The summer in these regions are extremely difficult with massive dust in the air. Most of the agricultural land is turning barren. Water level in the river is reducing drastically resulting in the extension of its breadth and creation of the sandy patches or islands in between. You can see huge bridges across Ganga but the river looks tiny. The only time it does look like a river is in the monsoon season. Mokama, Begusarai and Khagaria present an abysmal picture but the biggest shock was at Kosi Ganga Sangam which is difficult to reach due to the river bed turning sandy. To reach to the area is difficult. On a normal winter or summer day, the water at the confluence is extremely low and the river looks dirty too. Again, the breadth of the river increases. However, from Manihari in Katihar to Sahebganj, a trip on a cargo Ship is a worthwhile memory to stack away though it is difficult to cruise because of low water levels. But this will work till the bridge connecting Sahebganj and Manihari is completed.

Historical Rajmahal

However, the most fascinating part of the river Ganga (Ganges) in Bihar is in South Bihar. From Munger –which itself is a historical place—the old fort area is totally encroached upon and you will see no effort to preserve the historical architecture and buildings. The river from Munger to Bhagalpur and Kahalganon is phenomenal. It is a breathless treat to watch. It looks less polluted and is called ‘Uttar Vahini’ at Sultanganj where the historical Ajgaibinath temple is located. Bhagalpur is an extremely important location where enough evidence exits of our Buddhist, Adivasi and Jain past. There are historical places. The most beautiful region is Kahalgaon and Vikramshila. It has been reported that the entire area from Sultanganj to Kahalgaon, has been declared by the Bihar government as a ‘Dolphine Sanctury’. The fisherfolks are protesting against it as they lose their right to fishing. The Ganga Mukti Abhiyan started from this place fighting against the Zamindari on water and finally Lalu Prasad Yadav as chief minister of Bihar ended that cruel system imposed during the British period that looted the fisher communities of the region but the lives of the fish workers are not safe. Zamindari has gone but Rangdari has started. People still live in fear.

Sahebganj is the only Ganga district in Jharkhand. The Ganga here as a massive presence between Manihari to Sahebganj. There is an international port and a domestic one, possibly one that is under-utilised. The water level is still not that much which can ensure an easy passage. Secondly, the Ganga splits more in Jharkhand. Various streams split up and join again. The most important place of Ganga journey in Jharkhand is Raj Mahal, a very historical place, former capital of undivided Bengal under the Mughal King Akbar era. Raja Man Singh was made the Viceroy of Bengal and it is he who established Rajmahal as the capital of the state. It still has few landmarks like Jami Mosque, Baradari and many other places which still need deep care as they remind of our rich historical legacies.

Between Raj Mahal and Farakka, the Gumani river rising from the Raj Mahal hills ultimately merges with the Ganga and then moves towards Farakka. The link road between Rajmahal and Farakka is in extremely bad shape in the last 10 kilometers perhaps because it is the area of coal mining and thermal power plant. Again, the air is filled with dust and smoke most of the time in nearly 10 kilometers area. One can just imagine the lives of people during the summers here.

The one point on which the fisherfolk from three states, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand unit is on the issue of Farakka Barrage. They want this barrage de-commissioned as it has damaged the fish diversity in the river above Farakka. Hilsa is not available to fisherfolk in UP, Bihar and Jharkhand. After Farakka, fisherfolk claim that they do manage to harvest the fish but due to the closure of gates at the barrage, Hilsa and other fish can’t move back. Many farmers too reflected that due to the existence of a barrage, a large part of land in Jharkhand and Bengal face flooding in monsoon. The impact of Monsoon floods is tremendous in Bihar and Bengal and governments have so far not been able to reach to any particular conclusion or solution so that human lives or agricultural land is not lost. Every year, the soil erosion has already engulfed thousands of acres of land and made people landless. It is time for a serious think over –and concerted response to–these issues and protect our communities, farmers, fish workers and others living nearby the river.

Ganga in Bengal: Rise of Bhagirathi

The journey of the mighty Ganges (Ganga) in Bengal is extremely important to understand the issue of climate change. The split in the rivers become the norm. Right from Nimtitta town, the Ganges becomes wider and splits into two parts. The river flows towards Bangladesh and is known as Padma there while the second part of the river again splits at Giria and is known as Bhagirathi which then travels to different districts from Murshidabad, Plassey, Nabadweep where again Jalangi meet it and the new river is now known as the Hooghly. The interesting part is that there are towns on both sides of the Hooghly. There is history. Nabadweep is the birth place of Chaitnya Mahaprabhu. After passing through many places the Hooghly ultimately flows into Bay of Bengal in the Sundarban region. The place where it merges into the sea is known as Ganga Sagar but Sagar Dweep itself has numerous issues of climate crisis. Many villages have disappeared and many might disappear in future as the water level of the sea is rising regularly.

To conclude, I would say, preserving Ganga is extremely important for the health of India as it emerges from Himalayas and finally flows into the Bay of Bengal near the Sundarban. Both the Himalayas and Sundarban are world heritage sites. The impact of climate change is acutely visible in both these places. The question is whether the so-called climate change is a natural process or a human-made disaster. The number of commercial activities in the Himalayas as well as in Sundarban are bound to impact all of us.

We need to think out of the box but certainly not to convert the entire issue of Ganga and climate change to one merely concerning ‘experts. It is time, we engage and involve the local communities, fishermen, farmers and other native communities who are inter-dependant on the river and its surroundings as without their active participation in any debate or decision-making processes, we won’t be able to achieve anything meaningful.

‘Save the Ganga’ slogan means protecting and preserving Himalayas and Sundarbans apart from all the big and small rivers and large riverine area that makes up the mighty Ganga.

(This is the text of the talk delivered at Jawahar Bhawan, New Delhi, on November 18, 2024, was organised by Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies)

[1] Ghaghra and Son are the tributaries of river Ganga. Ghaghara is a 1080 km long river that originates from Mapchachungo Glacier in Tibet. It flows through Tibet, Nepal, and India where it joins river Ganga near Chhapra, Bihar.

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“Panditaraja Jagannath, Mughal court poet extraordinaire, a scholar of Linguistics, poetics, and philosophy, hounded by the Brahmin orthodoxy led by Hara Dikshita for marrying a Muslim woman, sought refuge on the steps of Banaras by the side of the Ganga. Forbidden to step into the water lest he pollute the river with his transgression, he was moved to compose his famous devotional eulogy of the Ganga, known as the Piyushalahari. As he composed each verse, legend has it, the river rose step by step, and at the end of his recitation sweeps him and his devoted wife away.”

This is one of the many fascinating stories that Sudipta Sen tells us in this remarkable book, a product of at least 12 years of labor of love.
Rivers are indeed storehouse of millions of tales, and no book can do justice to all the tales a river has to tell. One book can never be sufficient to tell a history of a river, as the history of river would include the history of all the key interactions that a river has had with various living organisms and people. Not the least a river like Ganga.

The author says in his introductory chapter, “This books explores the evolution of this image of a cosmic river at the intersection of myth, history and ecology.” For a river like Ganga, this is a herculean task. It is difficult to judge how far the author succeeds in this exploration of myth and history. But, he does not go far in defining the ecological parameters of the river.

The author starts his journey from Kali Gandaki river, the river older than even Himalayas: “Geologists have been fascinated by the Kali Gandaki and its tributaries because it is the only river that has retained its path through the Himalayan massif.”

In the beginning of this journey itself, the author asks a pertinent question: “How did the Ganga come to assume such a central place in the civilization and culture of the Indian subcontinent?” He may well have asked another pertinent question there itself: if Ganga did assume such a central place in the civilization and culture of the subcontinent, why was the river allowed to degenerate into one of the most polluted and defiled places on earth, its situation worsening during the right wing rule of Vajpayee and Modi?

The author variously describes the river as “a mundane river, repository of accumulated human misdeeds”, “cosmic river”, “one of the most engineered spaces on the planet”, “immaculate and eternal deity of the flowing waters”, “the river of the last resort”, “refuge of the wretched of the earth”, “the iconic status”, “River of afterlife”, “a comfort for the dying”, “the metaphysical threshold”, “the most compassionate mother”, “resplendent necklace on the bosom of the earth”, among many others. It reminds one of the 1000 names that Ganga has been given in puranas.

Some serious limitations For a book published in 2019, one expects it to contain a reasonably accurate account of the key current issues plaguing the river. But the book makes no detailed mention of plethora of bumper to bumper hydropower projects and all the debates around them, the unsustainable sand mining, encroachments on the floodplain and river bed and even the historic 2013 Uttarakhand flood disaster, or climate change impacts already affecting the river.

The whole book is about a River. One expects the author to at least attempt to define the river along with a narrative about various dimensions of a river. The author falls in the familiar trap of using water and river interchangeably. The book may also have benefited from providing map of the Ganga basin to define the changing Geographic contours during different eras.

The author makes a large number of inaccurate, wrong or misleading assertions. For example, he says Farakka barrage was “originally intended for irrigation and flood control”, which is not true, the basic objective of FB was to sustain navigability of Kolkata port.

Moreover, the book makes rather confused statement: “India has defended the viability of Farakka as a safeguard against excessive siltation that has progressively diminished the navigability of the river between Hugli and Allahabad.” In the context  of Farakka, Allahabad does not come in the picture and the stretch between Hugli and Allahabad has seen various adverse impacts.

Similarly, his contention that efforts between India and Bangladesh “have not been successful in reaching a mutually acceptable compromise” does not seem correct in view of the 1996 Ganges agreement that has survived 23 summers without major issues.

For a number of questionable statements, the author does not provide any source or reference, which is a rather disturbing weakness. For example, he states “Some scientists have sounded the alarm that the Tehri Dam added to the minor barrages in Bijnor, Narora and Kanpur, has so accelerated the siltation rate of the Ganga that its lifespan is limited to a meagre forty to fifty year.” The author neither names any source nor any scientist, the statement itself sounds meaningless as it stands.

Similarly, he says the Tehri debate “pitted engineers and technocrats against villagers, devout Hindus, hidden leftists and environmental militants.” He does not clarify source or who is means by environmental militants or hidden leftists. He makes another factually wrong statement when he says, “The (Ganga Action) plan was officially withdrawn in 2000 and a postmortem was done by the National River Conservation Authority.”

These are avoidable mistakes and let us hope the writer qualifies them or corrects them in the next editions.

Political setting The author may as well have noted that it was BJP rule under AB Vajpayee when the Tehri Dam gates were closed rather secretively, without going through due process.

And that it was Congress rule when Prof GD Agarwal (also known as Swami Gyan Swarup Sanand) went on fast at least four times, and government negotiated with him and agreed to many of his demands, each time, he withdrawing fast, whereas under Modi, Prof Agarwal died during the very first fast as the Prime Minister had no time for responding to Prof Agarwal.

The claims of the “Ganga putras” like the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ministers Gadkari and Uma Bharti about Ganga notwithstanding, there is little dispute that their actions have done enormous harm to the river. As I write this, Swami Atmabodhanand broke his fast unto death for the Ganga on 194th day of fast on May 4, 2019.

The songs and the tales right in the beginning of the book the author mentions the notes from the seventh century Chinese traveler Xuanzang who saw at Ganga-Yamuna Prayag, “hundreds of men fasting for days before immersing themselves in the river for a last ritual bath before committing suicide by drowning.” The strange ritual was ultimately stopped by Mughal emperor Akbar, the author notes.

One is reminded by the author about “the songs and verses of the radical devotional ferment that swept across India of the late Sultanate period, led by figures such as Nanak, Raidas, Dadu and Kabir, all of whom questioned the blind following of prescriptive rituals in normative and orthodox forms of Hindu worship and piety.” Sen goes on to remind about Nanak recording in Adi Granth “about the folly of believing that simply bathing in the Ganga makes one pure”. And about Kabir talking in his famous language of “enigma and paradox” when he says purity is an attitude, a state of mind.

The same water that flows in the roadside nala also flows in Ganga, but the former is not even worthy of being touched. The author notes, “Decades before India’s official independence, the Ganga had already secured its place as the national river”, referring to Poet Iqbal’s Song of India “Sare Jahan se Achha”, written in Lahore in 1903.

At one stage, the author asks a pertinent question that Ganga herself possibly asked Bhagiratha: “And then where would she go to cleanse herself of such accumulated poison?” As Bhagiratha reportedly replied to Ganga, she possibly does not have to go to any new place to clean herself. If truly religious people of current day India, like Panditraja Jagannath and his wife from the story we started with were to stand up for the river. Today we have saints of Matri Sadan, ecologists working on dolphins and turtles, activists working against dams, civil society working against unsustainable sand mining, pollution and environment flows, standing up for the river. But we clearly need more  efforts from all concerned to improve the state of Ganga.

A number of scholarly books have come out in recent years on Ganga. Sudipta Sen’s book is a valuable addition to literature on Ganga, especially for the way in which it connects various historical periods of the river. In spite of its limitations, but the book is a keeper.

But we need lot more scholarly work on our rivers, before the amazing beauty of rivers desert the humanity forever.

Courtesy: Counter View

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From ‘ Ganga behti hai kyon’ by Pundit Narendra Sharma and lyrics rendered by Bhupen Hazarika
 

One of the present government’s prime mission was cleaning Ganga. It boasted of a flagship program ‘ Namami Gange’ but could not care to listen to the real fighter who was on fast since June 22 demanding concrete action to cleanse Ganga by not allowing industrial waste causing pollution and health problems to people.

Environmentalist GD Agrawal suffered cardiac arrest. He was administered a potassium and heart related medicine, told a doctor at AIIMS, Rhishikesh to ANI. (Environmentalist GD Agrawal dies after fasting to save Ganga … October 11, 2018, indiatvnews.com). He was demanding steps to make ganga ‘ aviral’ (free flowing) and clean.

The 86- year old former professor of IIT Kanpur has been demanding a ban on all hydroelectric projects along the tributaries of ganga besides enactment of the Ganga Protection Management Act . ( October 11, 2018, outlookindia.com). Agrawal sent several letters to the Prime Minister who, in 2014 pledged on the banks of ganga in Varanasi that immediate steps would be taken to clean ganga. But the government paid no heed to his demands, said ‘ IIT-ians for Holy Ganga’ , a forum formed to preserve the heritage and ecology of the river.

Brief sketch
G D Agrawal, also known as swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, has earlier held the chair at Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering , Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He served on the board of the National Ganga River Basin Authority and was the first member secretary of Central Pollution Control Board. The government had also engaged him at various levels to advise them on the health of the country’s rivers. ( Oct 11, 2018, scroll.in). His demands included maintaining the environmental flow of the river to prevent pollution, removal of encroachments from the riverbank, and,a special law to deal with the pollution of the river.

In July, he was forcibly removed from his fasting venue by police and taken to undisclosed destination. Later, he filed a petition in Uttarakhand High Court stating that his peaceful fast did not pose law and order problem to State.

Condolences
Many human rights activists, environmental experts and politicians expressed their condolences. Activist Prashant Bhushan said that Agrawal passed away after his pleas to save the Ganga ‘ fell on Modi’s deaf ears’ . He also regretted ‘ this world is not for pure souls’ . Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, “…. Rs.22,000 crore was allotted for cleaning it ( ganga) but not even 1/4 th of it has been used..” Aam Admi Party leader Sanjay Singh, Rajya Sabha MP termed government as ‘ insensitive’ opined that the bjp garnered votes on the name of Ganga but could not save the son of ganga (Agrawal). Even the ruling party members including PM and Uma bharati ( who vowed to clean ganga) expressed grief but their inaction and lack of political will is palpably visible. Despite fasting for almost 111 days, the government failed to assure Agrawal and could not stop him from fasting. He had tried his best but when he realized that the rulers are unmoved, he stopped taking even water and honey for the last few days leading to his demise.

To- day, Ganga is smeared with blood of its loving son. Will the powers that be initiate any concrete step in future?

(The writer from anywhere and everywhere is supporter of human rights. Whenever the writer ponders on the question ‘ who am I?’, He receives response from a lyric by Bhupen Hazarika, ‘ ami ekti jajabor’ ( I am a gypsy). Some of the works appeared in dissident voice, poemHunter.com, tuckmagazine.com, counterview.org, counterview.net, velivada and virasam.org, etc)

Courtesy: https://countercurrents.org/
 

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Swami Sanand is not merely a religious person. He was known as Professor G.D. Agarwal before he became a saint. He has served at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and as Member-Secretary, Central Pollution Control Board and is responsible for putting into place a number of pollution related norms.

Ganga couldn’t be cleaned after Rs. 500 crores were spent as part of Ganga Action Plan. The present government has proposed a budget of Rs. 20,000 for the Namami Gange project, of which Rs. 7,000 have already been spent. Swami Sanand says that Ganga would not be cleaned because the present government is following a similar programme as the past governments.

The capacity of Common Effluent Treatment Plants and Sewage Treatment Plants to clean industrial waste and sewage produced by cities, respectively, is simply not enough to handle all the wastes generated and whatever capacity has been built is not always functional. For example, against the 400 Million Litres per Day of sewage generated in Varanasi city, the built capacity of STPs is only one-fourth. Bhagwanpur plant, near Banares Hindu University, has a capacity of 8 MLD, Deenapur plant has a capacity of 80 MLD and Konia plant has a capacity of 150-200 MLD but works at only 30-40% of its capacity. Among these the Bhagwanpur plant works best but its capacity is minuscule compared to total sewage generated. Two more STPs are now under construction. When the plants are out of order or there is no electricity, the waste flows directly into the river untreated.

Assi river, which looks more like a drainage, and parts of it have been completely covered to actually make it a drainage, discharges 80 MLD of untreated sewage and Varuna river with 80-90 MLD of sewage discharges 75-80% of it untreated into Ganga. Parts of Assi and Varuna, two rivers from whom the city derives its name, are also used by Nagar Nigam as landfills. Seepage from these garbage heaps also pollutes the rivers.

Kanpur city produces 600 MLD of sewage and industrial waste whereas the built capacity to treat waste is hardly 200-250 MLD.

Corruption also has a role to play in this pollution. Employees of Municipal Corporation or State Pollution Control Boards, responsible for looking after the CETPs, allow the industrial waste to directly flow into the river bypassing the treatment plants by accepting bribes. When the manufacturing units increase their production capacity they don’t inform the PCBs officially. The extra waste generated is also allowed to join the river in exchange for bribes.

For example, none of the CETPs built in Ahmedabad are functional, reason for the extremely polluted water of Sabarmati river downstream of city. The water itself comes from Narmada canal as upstream from the city the river has dried up.

Only the contractors benefit from construction of STPs and CETPs. Government’s motivation to clean Ganga seems lacking and therefore Swami Sanand has sat on a fast unto death to demand a law for conservation of the river.

It is shocking that the government is not taking Swami Sanand’s fast seriously and neither is the media giving coverage to the fast, most likely at the behest of government. This is in spite of the fact that Narendra Modi declared when he went to contest the election from Varanasi that he had got a call from mother Ganga. After he took over as Prime Minister the name of Water Resources ministry was changed to include ‘Ganga Rejuvenation’ in it, as if there were no other rivers in the country.

Is it the famed Indian culture which Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh boasts off that just as Naremdra Modi-Amit Shah duo has marginalised senior leaders of Bhartiya Janata Parrty, they are now undervaluing Swami Sanand’s fast and will not have any qualms if he dies? Does the government, so worried about saving cows’ lives, not give priority to saving a Sadhu’s life?

Acquaintances of Swami Sanand are appalled at the way he has been left to die. If there is any sensitivity left in the government it should immediately enter into dialogue with Swami Sanand to end his fast and agree to make a law for conservation of not just Ganga but all water bodies of the entire country.

Sandeep Pandey is a social activist   e-mail: ashaashram@yahoo.com

Courtesy: https://countercurrents.org/
 

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Haridwar: Prominent activist urged the government to save the Ganga river conservation crusader Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, who has been on a hunger strike (fast unto death) since June 22 demanding a law for the conservation of the river.
 
Medha Patkar, Swami Agnivesh, Sohail Hashmi, Writer and Film Maker and Sandeep Pandey, Socialist Party, were some of the signatories of the signature campaign. “86-years-old Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, formerly known as Professor G.D. Agarwal, of IIT Kanpur and Member-Secretary Central Pollution Control Board, is on fast unto death at Haridwar since 22 June 2018, demanding a law for conservation of river Ganga. He has played an important role in stalling 3 hydroelectric projects to ensure the uninterrupted flow of Bhagirathi, which becomes Ganga after meeting Alaknanda, for the initial 175 kms,” the letter stated.
 
“Close to Rs. 500 crores were spent as part of the previous Ganga Action Plan and now Rs. 7,000 cr, out of Rs. 20,000 cr, the proposed budget for Namami Gange project under the current government, has been spent but most of industrial waste and sewage continues to flow untreated in Ganga similar to other rivers like Sabarmati in the country because, firstly, the installed capacity of Sewage Treatment Plants and Common Effluent Treatment Plants is woefully short of the total waste generated and, secondly, whatever capacity has been built remains non-functional for various reasons, including corruption,” it said.
 
“It is shocking that this government which projects itself as a champion of Hindutva and changed the name of Water Resources Ministry to include Ganga Rejuvenation in its name is completely silent on Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand’s fast and the media is colluding in this conspicuous conspiracy. We demand that the government enter into a dialogue with Swami Sanand to save his life and take some concrete steps to save the rivers and other water bodies of the country,” they wrote.
 
On Aug 5, he once again rejected Union Minister Uma Bharti’s plea to end his stir, saying he won’t do the same until his demand for passing the draft of Ganga Protection Act was met, reported The Tribune.
 
“On July 10, about 20 people, including policemen, forcefully dragged him from Matri Sadan Ashram in Haridwar, where he was observing fast, into an ambulance to Dehradun-based Doon Hospital. Later, on July 12, he was shifted to AIIMS, Rishikesh. During his eleven-day stay at AIIMS, doctors attempted to feed him through the drip. However, they failed,” reported The New Indian Express.
 
If you want to add your name to the signature campaign ‘Save Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, Ganga and other water bodies’, send a mail to Prakarsh Srivastava at srivastava.prakarsh@gmail.com or call or send an sms to 9818554465.

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