When
we attempt to reconcile the significance of the sacred
river in the past to its present reality, a most tragic
paradox is encountered. Ganga today is being worshipped
and defiled simultaneously. In fact, at most times, the
process of worship itself has a polluting influence since
bulk of the worship materials are disposed off in the
river in ugly non-biodegradable polythene bags and in
other unthinking ways. Today Ganga is the natural home
and recipient of half burnt dead bodies, unclaimed bodies,
animal carcasses, washermen’s points, dairies and cattle
bathing points, garbage from the slums, open defecation
along the river and domestic and industrial effluents
of all kinds. Whatever remains of the endangered species
of dolphins and the turtles are openly poached. The coexistence
of worship and defilement of the Ganga defies logic and
reason and leaves most observers confused.
Polluting socio-religious practices apart,
Ganga since perhaps about a century, has been subjected
to a multiplicity of serious threats, multiplying in their
impact and intensity every second. Planners in independent
India have approached the river and its pollution with
frightening ad-hocism. Adherents of the existing developmental
model in India, still consider the pollution of the river
as inevitable, also perhaps as an acceptable cost in the
process of development. Ganga waters have been freely
diverted and dammed for a myriad reasons, not least on
account of powering a so-called Green Revolution in agriculture.
Unplanned urbanization and industrialization together
with the population boom have extracted a very heavy price
from the river. The waters of Ganga have been and continue
to be treated as just another input, an economic resource,
to turn the mighty wheels of development. The western
model of development has been and continues to be blindly,
almost slavishly, imitated in India sans the safeguards. |
Over time, in between
passing of ambitious national laws on protection of environment
and international pledges for sustainable development,
the government did take notice of the alarming threats
to the life of the river. However, instead of a comprehensive,
sustained and intensive attack on pollution in the river,
action could not proceed beyond taking of symbolic steps.
There was and exists a wide chasm between the promise
of Ganga Action Plan and the reality of millions of litres
of all kinds of pollution meeting the river every single
minute. Inaccurate, partial and self-laudatory reports
have become the norm but do precious little to make significant
forward movement on reversing the flow of pollution in
the river. Admittedly, the task is Himalayan in nature
and requires sustained convergence of comprehensive attempts
by government, industries and civil society alike.
In all this, the civil society has been
a helpless and passive observer. Everyone has a foot somewhere
in polluting the river but no one could care less about
doing anything about it. Very few Individuals and organizations
are even attempting to do something beyond an occasional
burst of green concerns, which are event driven and only
perhaps serve to save ones’ own souls rather than saving
the soul of Ganga.
The painful reality still remains that
environmental concerns in India continue to be the burden
of a few green crusaders with the vast majority just plainly
looking on. A serious erosion of faith has entered the
psyche of the masses, gripping all with the thought that
“nothing can be done”. The rapid rise in the pollution
of the river has been accompanied by (and also because
of) mass apathy. Pollution and public concern of Ganga
seem to exist in inverse ratios. |
If ever
any crisis meant an opportunity to make a difference,
it could not be truer than is the case for Ganga. The
distressed river beckons all to come to its rescue.
It took hundreds of years of penance
by Sage Bhagirath to bring the celestial river to earth
and it would not be an exaggeration to say that today
Ganga requires many Bhagiraths to survive and reclaim
its sacred nature.
Before any action can be initiated, all
concerned should start thinking in terms of a new vision
for Ganga. How do we want Ganga to be and what can be
done to achieve that vision is the question posed to all
of us. A new vision for a pristine and pure Ganga has
to pour forth and translated on the ground. A new vision,
which needs churning of the spirit and mind. A new vision
that can inspire the masses to action. A new vision that
needs to reconcile the competing demands on the precious
waters of the river with sustainability. It needs to think
of the river as one organic entity where tinkering in
one-part affects the entire body of the river. A new ion
which believes that if we as humans wish to survive, Ganga
needs to survive.
The eternal Ganga today, needs new heroes
and new voices. If you wish to respond to her call, the
time is NOW. |
