2019-08-03_Outlook

5 August 2019 OutlOOk 49

transformed the landscape.

In stretches of the Ganga upstream of

Farakka, residents had witnessed the test runs

of barges. They talked about multiple tug boats

having to pull barges out of shallow channels

of the river, but were unaware that the NW1

was being set up. We sat together, drawing

maps in the mud to discuss what had been

proposed. It was a revelation to them.

Around the Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin

Sanctuary in Bihar, one of the most crucial

habitats of India’s endangered river dolphin,

locals knew of the waterway plans, but were

apprehensive about the impact of dredging

(required for large barges to ply in shallow

waters) on the riverine ecosystem.

This trend of partial information and misin-

formation was prevalent in Uttar Pradesh as

well. At many places, local boats had turned

turtle when large barges passed by. People had

been asked to relocate due to the submergence

of land to build barrages and were promised

land far from their farms. Thankfully, the

change in design of the project has negated the

need for relocation. But the biodiversity

at the Turtle Wildlife Sanctuary in Varanasi

has not been as fortunate. Mired in

troubles for long, the sanctuary was

eventually denotified in 2018, allegedly

to legally accommodate the NW1

multi-modal terminal at Varanasi.

These have led to environmental

destruction and the migration of fish-

erfolk. The ministry of environment

forests and climate change (MoeFCC)

has been lately pushing for doing away

with environmental clearances required

under the environmental impact assess-

ment notification 2006 for dredging in

waterways projects on the Ganga. This is

in direct conflict with suggestions made

by the expert committee of the MoeFCC

itself, and the general mandate of the

ministry to protect the environment and

not provide fast clearances. how does

this add up to the pomp and show of the

Namami Gange programme, which seeks

to rejuvenate the river?

We continue to buy into announcements

of large programmes and schemes, and

hope for change in what otherwise seems

like a lost cause. Five years ago, when

the rhetoric about Namami Gange flourished,

even pessismists pitched in with hope. But the

government’s actions have invariably disap-

pointed. Five years is a short span for a turna-

round, but definitely enough to present intent.

While the work on sewage treatment plants and

expanding urban sewage networks is impor-

tant, it is not an end in itself. ‘Beautification’

programmes and riverfront development will

not solve the core issues that ail our rivers—the

absence of natural flow, the freedom to enve-

lope floodplains and a healthy catchment.

We treat our rivers merely as a commodity,

sucking them dry with our urban desires, relo-

cating them at will for our benefit and tying them

behind walls that myths proclaim can only be

God’s doing. Legend has it the Ganga once gushed

with such force that, without Shiva’s intercession,

her descent to earth could wipe out the entire

planet. Today, about 940 dams, barrages and

weirs constrain her and her tributaries’ flow and

many stretches are ecologically dead. As rivers

are being continuously sliced and dredged, peo-

ple along their banks wonder: will they ever be

consulted—or even informed? O

While sewage

treatment

plants are

important,

rivers

require

natural flow,

the freedom

to envelop

floodplains

and a healthy

catchment.

RAVAGED RIVERS

The Ganga in Uttar

Pradesh

etell calaMities

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