Hurried tributaries quest for oneness

BD Kasniyal

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Pithoragarh, November 1

“The Ganga to me is the symbol of India’s memorable past which has been flowing into the present and continues to flow towards the ocean of the future.” –Jawaharlal Nehru

The Mahabharata, Anusasana Parva, says the Ganga is righteousness in liquefied form. She is energy also running in a liquid form over the earth. She is endued with the splendour of puissance and unmatched sanctity. The very mother of the heavens, she has sprung from the highest mountain for running over the plains and conferring the most precious benefits on all creatures of the earth. She is the highest cause of all things; she is perfectly stainless. She is as subtle as Lord Brahma. She affords the best bed for the dying and we are all her tributaries too eager for oneness. She leads creatures quickly to heaven. She bears away a large volume of water.

“I will lay my bones by the Ganges that India might know there is one who cares.” —Alexander Duff

Alexander Duff was a Christian missionary in India of the 19th century who had great reverence for the Ganga.He had played an important role in the development of higher education in India.

Several rivers, rivulets, and streams from various glacial heads in Garhwal Himalayas flow into the Ganga at various places that are called Prayags and have become places of pilgrimage. The reverence for the Ganga and the places of confluence of various rivers and streams with her along her course in Garhwal hills have a special significance in the lives of people. However, these tributaries of hurried flows are also being polluted at numerous villages and towns that exist along their banks. These tributaries carry pollutants to the Ganga as there are hardly any sewage treatment plant along their course. Several rivers from the Kumaon region such as the Pindar, the Saryu, the Kali and the Ramganga hurriedly cover hundreds of kilometres to finally merge with the Ganga. The Central government has included only the Ganga, the Bhagirathi, and the Alaknanda under the Namami Gange Mission. The tributaries also need to be covered under the project and cleaned to ensure clean waters flow into the Ganga.

The Pindar that originates from the Pindari glacier in Bageshwar district is also one of the rivers of the Kumaon region which has not been included in the Namami Gange Mission of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Local leaders of all political parties have been trying their best to get the Kumaon rivers included in the mission but failed as the project stakeholders did not agree to the proposal. “Only last month, Chief Minister Harish Rawat had proposed at a meeting with the project stakeholders to include basins of Himalayan rivers such as the Pindar, Saryu, Kali, and Ramganga (eastern) in the project but the Centre instead included these catchment areas under the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan,” says Lalit Pharswan, MLA of Kapkot in Bageshwar district where the catchment area of the Pindar falls.

Though the Pindar originates from the Pindari glacier in the Kapkot area of Bageshwar district, it carries waters from the Sundardhunga and Kafni glaciers. It gets polluted when it reaches Kunwari, the last village in Bageshwar district before it flows to meet the Alaknanda at Karnprayag. “The Pindar flows in fully glory only in Bageshwar district. Later it gets polluted with domestic and human waste, and sewage of 20 villages inhabited by over 15,000 persons and reaches Kunwari at the Bageshwar-Chamoli border,” says Pharswan.

The Pindar covers over 120 km, including 45 km in Bageshwar district alone, before it meets the Alaknanda at Karnprayag in Chamoli district. “The Pindar also carries domestic and human waste from several towns and villages situated along its banks such as Deval, Tharali, Kulsari, Harmani, Bheeng, Narayan Bagar, Nalgaon and Simi,” says Pharswan.