48 OutlOOk 5 August 2019
cover story opinion
t
he summer sun in Bundelkhand
is unrelenting, especially if you’re
making your way across the prickly
dry landscape on foot. At the outskirts
of a village on the banks of the Ken,
my companion and I stopped at a mud house
on a large mound, exhausted and hoping to
find some food and shelter. Our request for
water confused the host. Did we want to drink
at the home of a lower-caste person? We had
a few gulps of river water she had stored and
proceeded to the village.
At the anganwadi centre, we sat on threaded
cots under the shade of a magnificent neem
tree. Bands of men were smoking and playing
cards on the patio, but there were no children
or anganwadi workers in sight. A young boy
volunteered to take responsibility for our f
ood and pooled items from many houses to
assemble a sumptuous meal. Amongst offers
for more rotis and tobacco, a discussion ensued.
“There’s a dam to be made on the Ken? They
are planning to divert water from the river to
Betwa? Will they not leave water downstream
at all? It’ll probably help control floods that
devastate our villages...What we want is for
a canal to go through our fields...Us fisherfolk
will not get fish anymore...” The residents had
plenty of questions and observations. Most
had no clue that an endeavour costing over
Rs 10,000 crore—the Ken-Betwa linking
project—had been proposed on their river, that
too to divert water to another basin. It would
entail an unprecedented transformation of the
landscape. Those ( barely) aware were conjuring
hypotheses similar to those who had just learnt
about it from us. Basically, they knew little. We
were accidental messengers doing the job of the
state. After walking through scores of villages
along the Ken, we realised that partial aware-
ness and misinformation were the norm.
The state seemed to be taking advantage
of this situation. In the past few years, the
Centre has issued unfounded statements to
the media regarding clearances for the project.
In 2017, the NGT admitted a plea seeking a stay
on the project on the grounds that there was no
environmental impact assessment and public
consultation, and sought the Centre’s response.
While India is witnessing the effects of climate
change, the government is pushing for river-linking projects that will lead to the submer-
gence of millions of trees in old-growth forests
like the Panna Tiger Reserve. The reserve,
home to India’s national animal, is situated
in Bundelkhand, part of the Ganga basin.
While elections are being fought on the
promise of reviving the Ganga, the constant
degradation of the river’s catchment and
continued damming of its tributaries do not
inspire confidence. The Namami Gange pro-
gramme of the central government mentions
‘nirmal dhara’ (clean flow) and ‘aviral dhara’
(ecological flow) as primary goals. however,
the government continues to push for massive
hydro power and river-linking projects, which
are harmful to rivers. One look at the current
scheme of things makes it amply clear that the
inclination is towards large-scale projects and
grand announcements, which offer political
rather than ecological gains.
Another such project is National Inland
Waterways, which seeks to convert 111 river
stretches in India into commercial navigable
routes. Of this, the section of the Ganga between
Varanasi and haldia is designated as National
Waterway 1 (NW1). Its design has changed from
a barrage every 100 km on a 1,600-km stretch
of the river to three multi-modal terminals in
that section. In 2016, before this modification
happened, I sat with farmers and fisherfolk on
the banks of the Ganga in Bengal, Bihar and
Uttar Pradesh to gauge their reactions to the
project. Walking along the river allowed for
intimate interactions at various places and
I gained a comprehensive perspective.
“They will run barges? But the river doesn’t
have enough depth...Barrages here? Will
our fields get flooded? Maybe water will be
available to us year round...They don’t give
us advance warning for the ships. We have
already lost fishing nets worth thousands
of rupees. Some of our boats capsized...”
Residents in Bengal talked of an increase in
ships transporting coal. There were allegations
regarding the exclusion of the riparian com-
munity from discussions about these develop-
ments. Authorities had not introduced warning
systems for the safety of fisherfolk, their boats
and nets. River banks were eroding at a pace not
witnessed before in local memory. The Farakka
Barrage and the increase in coal barges hadMost people
had no clue
that a project
costing Rs
10,000 crore
had been
proposed on
the Ken river,
that too to
divert water
to another
basin.the cuRRents foR etell cala
River-linking, navigable waterways and other such large-scale projects offer political rather than environmental gains. We need to restore the ecological flow of rivers.
Siddharth Agarwal
walks along rivers
across India to
document stories
of people and the
environment