SAVE GANGA

SAVE GANGA

By:

SUSHMITA PAUL

Ganga-the beautiful cultural and traditional image of India is getting ruin day by day. Borning from the lap of Himalayans’ glacier Gangotri, carrying the lifeline of crores of Indians, Ganga makes itself the bizarre of all. River Ganga- the national river of India, serving great value importance to the country is being threatened by all of us. The pride of India-River Ganga’s story made its existence since the Veda period. The whole story of Ganga prelects the story of India. Ganga runs through 52 cities and 48 towns providing livelihood to many at the cost of its life. This holy river is considered as the river of great ritualistic and spiritualistic importance. But unfortunately Ganga is on verse of losing its valuable existence.

Ganga submerges in itself litres of industrial waste, sewages and hazardous chemical. About 730litres of wastes are being drained daily in River Ganga, from which only about 400 litres are being cleaned taking the life of Ganga near the mouth of black hole. Apart from these major wastes slaying Ganga’s heart, this river always cries seeing the day to day people’s activities following its route by harming Ganga. The jamboree of human body waste, open defecations, dumping poly bags into the River further makes the situation very pathetic. Indians claim prelacy on Gangajal which is actually full of toxics now a days.

The Government of India has initiated different projects to Save River Ganga. The Ganga Action Plan (GAP) –started in 1986, by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi launched Rs 462-crore project to clean the Ganga. This project failed but phase II of the programe got approval by Feb 2014 and an expenditure of 939 crores was made to take up 524 different projects to clean Ganga. Then The National Ganga River Basin Authority (NRBA) under the headship of Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was launched as a regulatory body during February 2009 with an objective to reduce pollution in Ganga. But due to lack of accountability and commitment this Cell soon got dissolved. Supreme Court of India has already ordered the closure and relocation of industrial plants along the Ganges. The flow of the river between Gaumukh and Uttarkashi has been termed as ‘eco-sensitive zone’ in 2010. Another movement called the Save Ganga Movement started by social activists and saints also gained a lot of fame which works on Gandhian philosophy of non violence.  This time the Government of India has created few administrative changes to meet the success in saving Ganga. The River is now under the Water Resource minister Uma Bharti which was previously under the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Although these many programmes have been launched but there is least sign of betterment.

Actually we all need to inculcate our responsibilities in mind of being an aware and sensible citizen of India and understand the importance of Water Resources. Though the abiding truth of today’s Ganga makes the nation abash of its deeds but still it we can work together to save Ganga at our own level and make big differences.