Sunday, June 26, 2011

River Ganga Once again, at last

//It is in the shadows of a mango grove that Swami Nigamananda has found his final resting place. Buried under a mound of cowdung and mud in Haridwar’s Matri Sadan ashram, the ascetic died on June 14 of suspected poisoning at the hospital while on a fast to save the Ganga from indiscriminate mining. Ironically, it took his death (after two-and-a-half months of fasting) for the cause of a cleaner Ganga to come alive again. Despite over two decades of planning and action, which have little to show for it, the Ganga, holiest of India’s rivers, still remains an embarrassing sight. In her upper reaches, she is reduced to a trickle because of the numerous ill-planned dams that obstruct her natural flow and divert water into tunnels to power turbines. Downstream, in cities like Kanpur and Calcutta, the Ganga has to suffer millions of litres of untreated sewage finding its way into her waters.//

This is from Outlook this week. Most of you might have read the story , but I wanted to feel good about this intitiative. I am sad about that swamy, but am also hopeful Ganga will be cleaned soon and some of its past glory restored.

Link"http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?277355