Saints and rivers wither away as climate changes

GD Aggarwal died last week, at 87, fighting to get greater national attention on protecting the Ganga.

Before that, we heard from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) about the possibilities of staying within the 1.5 limit of climate change.

Somehow, there was an eerie synergy between these two—the tragic end of the satyagraha of an eminent scientist on one hand, and the voices of the world’s most respected scientists on the other hand.

The activist-saint of the Ganga talked about giving up dams along the Ganga, amongst other issues.

What he asked for was grounded in science and can still save the lives and futures of lakhs of people.

Let’s look at only dams and only one aspect of them - to build them you need to cut forests. But, forests are important agents in handling the impacts of climate change.

So if you continue to build dams on the Ganga, you are making it less of a river of life, and more of a river of sorrow, from Ganga Maiya to an old parent thrown out of the house.

According to the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (Sandrp), Indian researchers suggest that in terms of climate change, the Ganges is “a slightly non-resiliant basin.” It is also the most populous.

This is exactly where saints and scientists meet. They warn us not to act against our culture of protecting our rivers, or against science, or even, mock climate change. They ask us to be real and ferocious in our fight.

So why are we letting our wise men die and rivers wither away?