Hey folks,
I live in Delhi, and every year around this time I chant a special prayer for River Yamuna — “Please let it survive the onslaught of this festival season”. I began early this year, prodded awake by the Delhi High Court, which was publicly rebuking the state government for failing to take timely action against dumping of idols, plastic bags, containers, candles, pieces of clothes, decaying flowers and other ‘religious artlicles’, into the Yamuna. The river just cannot take the extra toxic load,
it warned, because it is already drowned in sewage, in pesticides, and in industrial waste.
Then I heard the sound of this distress signal reverberating everywhere — in all other towns, villages, and cities in the country. So I stopped to think. Why do I, and so many others like me, have to take resort to praying (helplessly!) year after year? India, after all, boasts of a civilization which always respected its water resources. Indian rivers were worshipped. Temples were built on them. Famous cities — from Kashi (Varanasi) to Pataliputra (Patna) were built on them.
As in the past, we continue to depend heavily on our rivers to meet our water needs. Delhi uses Yamuna, Hyderabad guzzles Krishna, and Bangalore sucks into Cauvery. So why haven’t we continued to take care of them? When did our precious water heritage get washed away?
– Pandit Gobar Ganesh
E-mail:
panditji@cseindia.org
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