POV: HOW NOT TO SAVE OUR RIVERS
As Jaggi Vasudev’s Rally for Rivers rolls northward toward Delhi, accompanied by encomia from his followers, corporate sponsors, assorted celebrities, the chief ministers of five states and politicians from Sonia Gandhi (Congress) to Pravin Togadia (Vishva Hindu Parishad), warning bells start ringing in my head. The catholicism of this motley crew is a clue to the apparent naiveté of the rally’s aim: save our rivers by creating awareness and planting trees on riverbanks. With such admirable, anodyne goals, everyone’s pleased to jump on the green Mercedesled bandwagon.
It’s true that our rivers are in dire straits. Worshipped yet wantonly abused and sullied, saving them does call for urgent and concerted action. But the biggest threats to our rivers have nothing to do with planting trees and everything to do with taking hard, unpopular stands against what politicians, corporates, contractors, affluent urban classes and dominant farmers’ groups want. If Jaggi Vasudev is serious about saving rivers, these should be his priorities: 1. Oppose the interlinking of rivers, especially the KenBetwa project which is being pushed through as we speak. It alone will fell 2.3 million trees, part of a mature dry deciduous forest in the Panna tiger reserve. Your riverside plantations won’t come anywhere close to the kind of biodiversity it already harbours.
2. Say no to longdistance water transfers and support in situ soil and water conservation. Irrigation absorbs up to 70 per cent of all water in India. More than 60 per cent of this is wasted. A lot of the rest goes in growing thirsty crops like sugarcane, rice and wheat, propped up by skewed prices and subsidised power. To save rivers, we must revolutionise agricultural policies and practices. The alternatives are present and proven. Ask the government to bring them centre stage through a comprehensive, nationwide scaling up.
3. Call for a moratorium on dams in the Himalayas. From Arunachal to Himachal, dams are destabilising fragile geologies, changing hydraulic rhythms and destroying complex ecosystems forever. By asking that the upper reaches of Indian rivers be declared inviolate, you will safeguard local ecologies and secure the fertility of the Indus and GangaBrahmaputra basins. Advise your followers to choose river health over hydel power: sweating it out without airconditioners will be good for their souls. 4. Ask your corporate partners, including the Confederation of Indian Industry, Adani Group, Reliance, Mahindra and ONGC, to make their factories selfsufficient in water and zerowaste in pollution by 2020. The technologies exist; firms only need to put their wallets where their mouths are. And, just in case they drag their feet, please insist that your friends in government empower pollution control boards to prosecute and punish industries and city municipalities that poison rivers with effluents and sewage. 5. Depute one wing of your organisation to prevent forest felling for mining coal, iron and bauxite in the catchment of subcontinental rivers. Mobilise a squad to stop sand mining along river banks and maintain habitats for endangered creatures such as the gharial and river dolphin. Protect floodplains from encroachment and wetlands from construction. Tell them to help secure the livelihoods of the farmers, fishers and labourers who depend on the intricate interface of land and water to survive.
Rivers are indeed our lifelines. They should command our most enlightened, uncompromising, unremitting attention. Experienced activists and scholars know that the political economy of riverine ecology is knotty and obdurate. Tackling it means taking on the Establishment. Jaggi Vasudev’s pious sentiments and the trees planted by his supporters won’t save rivers. They are a pleasant sop to the conscience of the wellintentioned yet illinformed. And a photoop for corporates. As the last empty bottle of Bisleri bounces out of the window of the motorcade, the rally moves on. And our rivers remain unsaved.
True, our rivers are in dire straits. But planting trees won’t save them, taking hard decisions against entrenched interests will