Yamuna Satyagraha Yatra-fight for the river

“Only 28 per cent water in the world is fresh, rest is all saline. Still, we do not understand it’s value. The next world war will surely be over water,” said Hero Hiralal, a boatman who ferried us around the Ghats of Vrindavan along river Yamuna, most of which were as far as 500 metres from the river, divided from it by a sand beach, and also a concrete road.

“It is you people who have polluted the river. All the muck that comes down here is from Delhi. Even if 30 crores out of the 400 crores spent on the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) was properly utilized, Yamuna would have been much cleaner today. Everybody just shouts about cleaning, even in the evening Aarti, they shout about Yamuna Maiya and how it needs to be cleaned but nobody takes a single step,” said Hero Hiralal, summarizing my entire journey “to explore the river” which was the motive we started with.

I was amused at the awareness of this boatman who claimed to haven’t even stepped out of Braj region all his life but not at all surprised for him blaming Delhi for polluting the river. This had been the refrain throughout our eight days’ journey from Delhi to Agra in the villages along the banks of the River.

On June 5, the world Environment day, a group of professionals, farmers, activists and journalists headed off for a bike rally in the villages along the Yamuna. Flagged off from the site of Yamuna Satyagraha, where a group of people has been protesting against construction of Commonwealth Games Village for more than 300 days now, the aim of the rally was to check out the situation in villages downstream of Delhi till Agra.

Almost every village we visited as part of this Yatra- Qutub se Taaj-Ek hi Awaz, Jiye Jamuna, Jiye Jan Jan- accused Delhi for sending down polluted water to their villages. “There was a time when one dropped a coin and it could be seen clearly at the floor of the river. Now, even a human body will not be visible, the water is so dark,” said Sukhbeer Mistry of Kushak village in Haryana. The instance of the coin was another refrain that we heard throughout this journey. But as we saw later in Mathura, a coin diver had to struggle through tones of grime to get a ‘mouthful’ of coins.

Till 30 years ago, Kushak village used to have a three-day fair of Peer Sidh Baba on the banks of the river. “In the month of Baisakh, people of all villages from Hodal to Palwal in Haryana would come to have a dip in the river and sell their wares near her. That used to be the time of water-melons and jalebis. Then the water in the river receded and the pollution went up. Now, the fair has practically died down with nobody wanting a dip in the dirty water,” said Gajraj Bainsla, sarpanch of Kushak.

“Even the mother does not feed the child unless he cries of hunger. Now it seems the time has come to shout to make the government listen to us,” chipped in Bainsla. By now, everytime we left a village, we got used to giving a loud call of “Yamuna mata ki Jai” and that continued throughout the journey, even though now it was more a show of religion and politics than the conservation spirit which we were meant to start with.

The joke of the trip, as we called it, was the condition of sewage treatment plants, all built with the biggest chunk of money under the YAP. In not even one place we visited, the STPs were functional, for whatever reasons. In the first one we visited in Dhadhasiya in Faridabad, the 20 MLD STP that occupies an area of 17 acres only obstructed plastic in the first phase and desilted sewage in the second. No aeration was being done. But even these two functions were shut down for the last one month because the capacity was being enhanced to 65 MLD. Till then, raw sewage will continue to be bypassed into drains which merge with the river. “The water is treated upto 50% when the STP is operational and then discharged into Bhudhiya Nala from where people also draw it for irrigation. I have been into the business of environment much before all this activism came in. But till date, no general public except for the Japenese students once in a while have visited this STP. Who is interested to know where their daily muck is going?” said the contractor of this STP.

The first night halt of the yatra was in a temple of Tigaon village in Faridabad. Heavy rainfall brought with it stench and mosquitoes which were effective enough in keeping everybody up and ready by 4 am in the morning. A little more exploration in the morning light revealed that there was a huge Johad behind the temple that was filled up with garbage and water hyacinth and rainfall meant more stench from the stagnant water. The only source of inspiration throughout the night was the songs of Kishorilal Tanwar, one of the farmers who participated in the Yatra. Kishori’s land on the Yamuna flood plain in Delhi was acquired when Akshardham temple came up. Since then, he has been tilling other’s land. The campaign against the Commonwealth Games village turned this 50-year-old man into a poet, composer and singer. Armed with an earthen pot, Kishori launched a fierce singing battle in all the villages we went, besides inspiring us in mosquito-ridden nights.

The next day took us to Manjhawli village. Dogs and cows crossing the river easily gave testimony to the fact that the river here was no deeper than five feet. The sarpanch of Majhawli village explained very distinctly the relation between social ills and dying agriculture and how the move towards urbanization has completely left the river out of the social phenomenon. A little ahead of Manjhawli in Amirpur village, an embankment over Bhudiya Nala was being constructed. “You would think it’s a project of national importance that they are bunding the land for. 100 acres of land has been bought on the flood plain for making a golf course. And thatswhy the embankment,” said Ram Chandra of Manjhawli, who daughter-in-law is the Sarpanch of the village. In order to calm villagers, SRS Constructions, the company developing the golf course, is making roads in nearby Manjhawali and Akbarpur villages. “People are also happy that the rates of land will go up near the roads and it will be easy for them to sell and leave or use the easy money in drinking. Government is anyway encouraging that by giving easy license for alcohol outlets. Who wants to do farming anyway, there is no incentive in it. Industry has so much overwhelmed us that agriculture has become completely a thankless job. Once farming goes, river will no more be a part of the social structure as it is now,” he said.

“Kastkar ke bina desh ka udhhar nahi hota, vyapari aur bhikhmange ko des se pyar nahi hota,” reminisced Kishori. (no country can prosper without farmers. Businessmen and beggars do not love the country)

A young chap sitting there proposed the solution for cleansing of the river: concretise the flood plain. “If the flood plain is concretized, nothing bad will go into it,” said Shyambir. He was immediately refurbished by another oldman for talking out of his head. “How will your tube-well work if you concretise the Khadar. Where will the ground water come from?” he said.

Given all this, farmers are happy with the river water which as of now acts as a fertilizer. “When we use this water, we need to put in fewer fertilizers, but when we use the borewell water, we need much more fertilizer. This is because this water comes from the industries,” said Satwant Kumar of Beduki village on Haryana-UP border. “People spend lakhs and take pipelines from here to Hodal which is ten kilometers away. We grow everything in it but for vegetables because they perish very soon if we use this water. We know that our land might be destroyed in the long-run, but who will wait till then. We will sell our land to industries and go like people in Delhi are doing now,” said his friend Mange Ram. At Beduki Nala we also saw a dead cow floating and another skeleton lying on the bank.

Till now, the only beings who treated the river close to their heart were children who dived into it with gay abandon, cows that bathed and dogs that relaxed in the cold water. It was overwhelming to see their association with the river, despite the smelly water, diseases and allergies apart. The next day embarked our entry into the religious sphere of the journey. Having entered Uttar Pradesh, now it was the land of Krishna that we were traversing. An ISCON follower who participated in the Yatra removed his footwear here for the rest of the journey. “It is only agriculture that can solve all problems of unemployment and social evils” he declared.

It was already June 8 and we were very close to Ganga Dushehra, the day when lakhs of devotees in these parts go to the river to take a dip. So the religious fervour associated with the river was already at the hightened pitch, but only in few places did it transform into cleaning of the river, like in Mathura, where a river-cleaning drive was already underway at Vishram Ghat.

Master Nain singh, whom we met on the highway near Chata, said that people come to Braj for an 84-mile ‘Parikrama’ but now one would find dead animals on the Parikrama route along the river. Standing on the pontoon bridge of Shergarh was a different feeling from all previous days’ experience near the river. For the first time, the river did not stink, what else could one ask for. People considered it the benevolence of Krishna that the water quality here, as tested by experts accompanying us, was also better than any other hand-pump that they tested on the way. “The river has the capacity of self-cleansing and rejuvenation. From Faridabad till here, there is no major town, so very little sewage has been thrown into the river, which is the reason for it becoming clean again,” said Manoj Mishra, who led our team.

The next destination was Ova village, popularly known as Dauji’s village as Krishna’s elder brother Balram is said to have stretched the river till here from Barsana. For this small stretch, the river water quality just bettered with each passing village, as our water testing team suggested. But this was to last only till Vrindavan where we halted for the night. Jaisingh Ghera, the earstwhile Haveli of Maharaja Jai Singh of Jaipur, was no less than luxury after suffering mosquitoes all this while. In Mat, a little before Vrindavan, though 150 cusecs of water is especially released from Gang Nahar into the Yamuna, Kosi Nala also joins the river here. The difference between the water before and after the point where Kosi Nala joins it, is stark even on the look of it. There are hardly any devotees taking a dip on the left bank near the ghats as the garbage from Kosi Nala flows on this side.

Robyn Beeche, an Australian whom we met here, conducted a cycle rally from Yamunotri to Vrindavan in 1996. “There was a Buddhist monk with us who carried seeds in his pockets and kept spreading them as we went down. The morning prayer in schools of villages here invoked the river and we saw how they wrap the river in long sarees on her birthday in May. All this was enthralling,” she recalled her experiences.

And she had the other side too. Beeche, who came to Vrindavan in 1984, shows photographs of how plastic waste is entrenched in the river bed in Vrindavan. “The river has been pushed away from the Ghats by more than 500 metres due to silting, dumping of garbage and debris. The aquifers near the river have died due to this,” she said.

“The thick concrete layer of sand and plastic under water also does not let it penetrate down. The water level has gone down from 30-40 feet eight years ago to below 150 feet now. Earlier, water used to cut the silt, but less flow in the river has prevented that also now. At the same time, most of the funds given by MoEF are for awareness. Somebody please tell them that there is already enough awareness but people do not have options. A common man knows that garbage should not be thrown in the river but what are his options, similarly, what should be done about flush toilets in cities? said Neeraj Saigal of Food for Life Vrindavan, a local NGO.

The Mahant of Jaisingh Ghera, Shrivatsa Goswami, threw a different light on the issue. “You will hardly find any Ashrams in Vrindavan that still use Yamuna water for all their activities. Even here, we do bring Yamuna Jal, but use it only ceremoniously, not for all our activities because we know it is polluted. We treat it as polluted but still sing praises of the river, isn’t it paradoxical?” he said.

Goswami tells about instances how the road was build in flood plain as the access to the Ashram of a prominent Dharam Guru was bad and how a 400 crore project of Ring road is being planned around Vrindavan which would involve erecting pillars of the river bed in an attempt to make it a tourist destination.

“A river is the image of society. If it is polluted, the society is polluted. River is dying in urban areas as it has no role to play in urban lifestyle like it has in rural activities like agriculture, bathing, etc. If religion can be used for all corrupt purposes, why can’t it be used for positive results. 95% of the population in our country and all politicians are ruled by religion, so if the attention of religious gurus is turned towards the cause, it is bound to make an impact,” said Goswami.

In Mathura, damming of the river was the main issue. The problem of less current due to Gokul Barrage in Mathura has led to even wells along the ghat drying up. “The barrage was mean to increase water level in Mathura and Agra, but it has just gone down. All sewerage is stopped at the barrage, turning the borewell water yellow and stinky. This is due to huge amount of silt in the river. We protested against the barrage from day-1 and still it came up. The results are there for all to see,” said Gopeshwarnath Chaturvedi of Shrikrishan Janmasthan Sewa Sansthan, Mathura. As Chaturvedi talked, his men cleared the muck from the river outside for the approaching Ganga Dushehra. “When textile shops mushroomed suddenly in every nook and corner of Mathura, the colour of the river water temporarily became the colour of dye used, it is not that much now,” said Chaterjee.

“Nadi ki aviral dhara ko rokne se nadi khatam ho jayegi. 150 cusecs are released to the river from Ganga at Mat before Vrindavan, 120 cusecs is released at Okhla barrage, there is plan to get 100 cusecs more, but now even Tehri dam is running dry, where will we get more from,” he said.

As we moved towards Agra, the short respite of stench-free clean river got over. Though we were welcomed by local activists with great fervour who led us into the town surrounded by a procession, river conservation as a motive was lost somewhere along the way. Everything drinkable served to us in the next two days was in plastic glasses, which sadly were thrown on the river bed in front of our eyes, as did the used dry leave plates and plastic bowls in which we ate. Despite the guilt factor, nothing much could be done by the guests as we had to appreciate the hospitality. The journey which had taken a very religious turn from Shergarh onwards now went into the politics of an urbanized town.

And the image of the city, as Goswami said, showed on the river too. Mantola nala, the drain that passed through the world heritage corridor between the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, presented the ugliest sight of the trip as it fell into the river. Having eked out time in between public meetings and Sabhas organised in welcome of the “team from Delhi” and several of speeches by local leaders and garlanding events, we went to see Mantola nala. Unfortunately or fortunately, we went in the morning, the time when it turned out that the nala is the dirtiest with city dwellers cleaning themselves. The foam was accompanied by waste from leather factories which turned various hues. And we were there at a time, when the sewage from the Nala had just started going back to the STP after a gap of 15 days. Reason: the iron mesh from where the sewage is diverted to the pumping station was broken due to excess rust. “If we keep diverting the sewage when the mesh is broken, it will lead to blockage of the pumping station with plastics, so the gates of the nala towards the river were opened,” said Deepchand, a sanitation worker at the point in Ramlila ground of Agra where the water is diverted to the Dhandhupura STP. Local news reports show that it is not a once in a while phenomenon. The gates are opened every once in a while. “This is due to old and worn out pumping stations and STPs which do not work half the time or there is no electricity,” said Ravi Singh, environmentalist.

Officially 78 MLD water is discharged into Mantola nala everyday, though unofficial estimates show more than 100 MLD. And all this sewage is discharged into the river in blatant violation of the Supreme Court order as well as the Water Act. Meanwhile, the city administration is contemplating getting drinking water supply from the Ganga via a 130 km long pipeline as the city has no other drinking water supply except for the Yamuna as of now. There goes the YAP!!

Near the school where we stayed on the Ghat of Yamuna in Agra, there was another sewage pumping station, which looked more like an abandoned well till one morning when I saw somebody cleaning the premises from the school building. I rushed down to talk to him and found that Rajwaha sewage pumping station has been out of order for some days now. No new story this time too!!

“Historians in the city tell us that Taj was built right on the edge of the river. People would get down from their boats and into the Taj Mahal. Will you ever believe that as you see the Taj at a distant height from the river now,” said Ravi.

From Delhi to Agra, its about 300 kilometres of the river as it meanders and it goes 400 kilometres more from here before finally merging in the Sangam, how it even flows after this is a big question. Perhaps, that’s the divinity attached to it, that it is just flowing, either as a sewer or the river, that’s for individuals to decide.

Filed under Environment, Pollution, Rivers, Travel | Comment (0)

Why Should we use Biodiesel The Advantages

These days, there are a lot of problems that the humans are facing with regards to air pollution. The more the vehicles are used everyday all around the world, the bigger the problem gets. And the number one blame goes to the emission of diesel engines from automobiles and industrial equipments that use fuel.

Aside from performing well just as ordinary diesel fuels do, biodiesel is more economic to use and has been proven to have same performance as regular fuel engines. It also does not only last longer but also have higher rate of lubrication with lover concentration levels, which makes it blend better and emitting less pollution than other fuel engines, especially diesel. Continue reading »

15 Rules Of Life In Delhi

Today I got this interesting mail from one of my friends with 15 Rules about Living Life in Delhi.
Delhi is known for its multi-ethnic culture. Anyone can survive in Delhi by hard or easy way.

1. The Other Side Law:
   If my side of the road has a traffic jam, then I can start driving on
   the wrong side of the road, and all incoming cars will be rerouted via
   Meerut.
2. The Queue Nahin Rule:
   If there is a queue of many people, no one will notice me sneaking
   into the front as long as I am looking the other way.
3. The Mind Over Matter Law:
   If a red light is not working, four cars from different directions can
   easily pass through one another.
4. The Auto Axiom:
   If I indicate which way I am going to turn my auto rickshaw, it is an
   information security leak.
5. The In Spit Of Thing:
   The more I lean out of my car or

Continue reading »

Videos showing Small Scale Production of Biodiesel

Here is a good video showing you how you can make or Produce your own Bio-Diesel on a small scale if you have a small space or a garage at you disposal.These type of videos are a huge hit and in great demand at times of soaring oil and gas prices at 140$/barrel for crude.

People in India and world should learn these tricks and ways as it is very likely that oil prices will touch the skyscrapers in the times to come.

This is only a part of shows that tell you how to make Bio-Diesel .You can watch full series
here.

Ten Difficult Ways to Save the Environment

So here is a list of 10 difficult (easy with practice) steps that you could learn and follow to make the environment green and friendly.

1. Take a bus and leave your car home. Don’t ever drive an SUV (sports utility vehicle). Say no to diesel cars.
2. Junk bottled water. Demand clean water for all.
   Insist water-free and as a right which is entitled to everyone but be ready to pay more if you use more.
3. Use less water, to discharge sewage.Think of the poluted river,every time you flush.
   Insist your colony recycles its waste-water, even reuses it after treatment.
4. Demand justice for both tiger and poor tribal people who coexist in the habitat
5. To make your beautiful home green, harvest rain, use water saving toilets, segregate garbage and compost kitchen waste.
   Use CFL bulbs and solar hot water heaters.
6. Impose economic sanctions against US for rogue climate behaviour .
7. Do not use any product which uses plastic to pack food or other stuff. This will put pressure on manufacturers to make recyclable packaging.
8. Levy a global “greenwash service” tax on Corporates. Make them fully liable for products that damage the environment today or tomorrow.
9. Do not first adopt wasteful and environmentally bad habits and then become GREEN. Think of the last parson. Do not first buy processed food and then ask for organic and home made food. Do not firs eat junk food and then go on a diet. Enjoy biodiversity in food and lifestyle. Boo MCDonalds.
10. Use less of everything that you use in your daily life.Not greed of some, but need of all is the only way ahead.

This post is dedicated to world environment day 2008
Download the copy of this article in pdf here.

Double Standards

While the Agarias wage a constant struggle with the forest department, the government has allegedly turned a blind eye to pollution by two soda ash-making units run by major industrial groups. At Mithapur in Jamnagar district’s Okha taluka there are charges of pollution against a salt-and-soda ash unit run by Tata Chemicals Limited (tcl).

The Dalmiya group-operated Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Limited (ghcl) unit in Junagadh district’s Sutrapada taluka faces more serious allegations: it has refused to comply with a high court order for more than a year, after violating salt lease conditions for about 20 years.

This is the cover story on salt in Down to Earth magazine that I talked about.
Here is the link to it.

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/

Its about how Conservation has become a ruse to evict Agarias, but so far as allegations of widespread pollution and environment destruction against big companies is concerned, authorities have chosen not to be strict. Local communities face a dual threat: they are dispossessed in the name of conservation and then large companies destroy farms forcing them to migrate.

More pictures from the Rann

Salt making in the Little Rann of Kachchh - Gujarat, India

I took these pictures while doing a story on Agariyas of Gujarat. Surviving in an extremally difficult terrain, under the blistering sun, Agariyas manufacture for us a commodity that we call COMMON SALT. What we do not see is the kind of hard work that goes into producing this commodity that is so basic to our food. But the Agariyas who produce it in unrelenting conditions, in a place where there is no natural source of drinking water, no electricity
and not even a tree to sit under if tired, do not get even a hundreth of the price that we buy our salt at. THEY GET SEVEN PAISE PER KILOGRAM OF SALT.

But still, there is happiness in their lives. I asked why don’t they just leave this lifestyle and go to town to work there as a construction labourer or something. Atleast they will get better money. To this, Shantabhai, the protagnist of my salt story, replied:

Life is hassle-free in the Rann. We may earn less after all this struggle, but there are no worldly botherations of crime or authorities troubling. Who will want to come to this barren land, where there is no other resource except for brine, especially to trouble us. This is Agariyas’ land. We have our freedom here. We do not depend on somebody else for our income.

He is right. I stayed a night with Shantabhai’s family in the Rann. Somehow, Continue reading »

Hello World-Welcome to Wildandhappy.org

Hey People,
Welcome to “Wild and Happy”

First the name (there is a lot in the name!)

Why are we “wild and happy”? I was desperately hunting for a good name for my blog and was frustrated that anything I thought about had already been taken. So, there was Rooted.com, wildernessredefined.com, .org, etc, etc, etc. Imagine the dent to my creativity! And then this friend, whom I had asked to suggest me a name, announced that he is starting a blog by the name, “Wild and Happy.” How incorrigible one could be? I asked him to suggest a name for my blog, and there he was, starting his own. This act demanded revenge. And Ladies and Gentlemen, here is our blog: “Wild and Happy.” Don’t worry, this is not stolen, the friend will be a regular contributor here and I have promised to give him another name for his blog (that is when he feels like posting!).

Wild and happy is a lot about environment and wildlife and all the more about personal experiences while dealing with these issues. We are not going to preach about global warming, pollution, save forests…blah…blah…blah. It is more about the people dealing with these problems and learning to modulate to deal with them, about the people who suffer due to them and how easily we have chosen to ignore them, how we have great figures to quote when making a presentation about impact of pollution, etc,etc, but not the faces of everyday life heroes who brave these problems and are happy in their adversity.

And it is about personal experiences that you and I encounter when we go places and look at these problems from the other side. You are all welcome to share really wild experiences, of places and situations where you thought you were really stuck but did come back, alive and HAPPY. Everything that surrounds you is environment, so feel free to share anything and everything you think is important for lives around you to know. Or something they already know but never voice!

Through this, I also want to share my experiences of Indians and the country we live in (I have deliberately put it the other way round) that are mostly based on my travel assignments as an environment journalist besides the stories that I do for my publication.

So, here we go!