DYING A SLOW DEATH

Ahead of biggest annual event, Ganga water level hits 30-yr low in holy city

B.K.Singh
Allahabad, January 8

THE HOLY city is gearing up for its biggest annual event, the Magh Mela, next week. Nearly five lakh people are expected to take bath in the Ganga on Makar Sankranti day, which falls on January 14 this year.

The deteriorating quality and diminishing levels of the Ganga water apart, conflicting statements issued by those who matter have worsened the situation. During his to review the Mela preparations on January 5, Uttar Pradesh Urban Develolpment Minister Nakul Dube shocked everyone by declaring that the Gaga water was neither fit for bathing nor drinking.

Twenty-four hours later, District Magistrate Ashish Goel said 1,500 cusecs of water was being released every minute from the Narora dam upstream to raise the river's water level. On Tuesday, Executive Engineer of Irrigation Department, Umesh Sharma said Ganga water had been static since the last five days.

He said the quantity of Ganga water, in fact, was the lowest in thirty years in the first week of January this year.

Last year, the river had 7,000 cusecs water flowing it it while this year it was just 6,000 cusecs, Sharma said. Lack of rain in the catchment areas of the Ganga basin, he pointed out, was also one reason behind the decreasing water levels.

However, holy men like Swami Hari Chaitanya and Swami Anang Giri, chief patrons of the Ganga Sena feel that the taming of the river at Tehri and Narora was the main factor behind the river's slow death.

Continuous release of water from these two places would sove the problem of the receding water levels, say the holy men. Pollution problem, they feel , is a different issue, which could not be overcome due to lack of will on part of those concerned.

Swami Anand Giri on Tuesday declared that the Ganga Sena would continue to spearhead the movement to make the water pure. The Ganga Sena wants the current year to be declared as Ganga Swacchata (clean Ganga) year and world heritage status to the holy river.

Regional officer of the state pollution control board, A.K.Anand, had on December 4, last year informed that bio-chemical oxygen demand (BOD) in Ganga was 3.3 mg per litre. Ideally, it should be much less. Similarly, dissolved oxygen level stood at 8.5 mg per litre. In actuality, it should not be more than 5 mg per litre, he had informed.

bksingh04@rediffmail.com

'Save Ganga' campaign by RSS, BJP
Lucknow, Jan 10
(IANS) Hoping to rally its various factions and supporters for the first time on an environmental platform, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will launch a 99-day 'Save Ganga' campaign as it held "rampant corruption" responsible for "unabated pollution" of the country's most sacred river.
The rally will start from Gangasagar where the river merges into the sea and go all the way up to the river's source at Gangotri.
One of the high points of the campaign will be Feb 17 when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani and RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan will participate in a special yagna, or fire ritual, in Varanasi.
Advani is also expected to address a rally on the banks of the river that day.
Hindu clerics, including the four Shankaracharyas, yoga guru Swami Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as well as Ramjanmbhoomi Trust president Mahant Nritya Gopal Das will join what the RSS has billed as the Ganga Sanskriti Pravah Yatra.
"The yatra is a part of the Ganga Mukti Abhiyan taken up by us as a mission to save the Ganga from further degradation," Acharya Vishnu, national secretary of the RSS outfit Ganga Mahasabha, told IANS by phone from Varanasi.
He said "gross neglect and rampant corruption" at all levels in different state governments was largely responsible for the unabated pollution of the country's most sacred river.
"We have reason to believe that billions of rupees have been pilfered in the name of ridding Ganga of pollution; this campaign is aimed at exposing this as well," he added.
From Varanasi, the yatra will proceed to Allahabad, Kanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Rishikesh and move upstream to Devprayag, Tehri, Uttarkashi and finally Gangotri.
IANS
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=63401