Save Rivers: Save Heritage

In India, a river is a mini-cosmos in concept. Every river is a mother deity who spawns mythology, art, dance, music, architecture, history and spirituality. Each one has a clear identity, appearance, value, style and spirit.

India has essentially grown along the banks of major rivers. Our ancient civilizations were born along the waters. This is a culture that never saw rivers and water as a commodity. We realized that this was a fundamental building block of life. India is blessed with some perennial and sacred rivers such as Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Tapi etc....

We Indians consider river as holy. We have maintained the relationship with rivers since many millennia, but since last few decades because of prominent reasons like population increase and development, many rivers are vanishing. Some small rivers have vanished. Many perennial rivers like Ganga and Indus are endangered due to several reasons they include population increase and development.

Rivers are India’s lifeline and enjoy a special place in prayers and its traditional practices. Most of the holy places in India like, Varanasi, Haridwar, Talakaveri, Nasik, Ujjain and Patna are situated along with the bank of seven holy rivers.

Some facts about rivers according to experts are:

1. By 2030 we will have only 50% of water we need for our survival

2. Today we have 75% less water per person than in 1947.

Rivers are a part of rich heritage of our country. So in order to preserve our heritage, we need to take some steps for the protection of rivers.

They are:

1. Prevention of pollution by interception and decentralized treatment of wastewater entering rivers and lakes.

2. Management of solid waste around the water bodies and catchment areas.

3. Enhancement of waterfront and catchment areas, such as storm water management, institution of buffer zones and silt traps.

4. Cleaning of water through low cost methods such as de-silting and cultivation of appropriate species for bio remediation.

5. Prevention of pollution by communities living along waterfront, such as through awareness and provision of sanitation.

Rivers have been the lifelines of India’s ancient, pulsating, throbbing civilization. They have brought prosperity, culture, style, colour, values, wisdom, devotion, knowledge, romance, wonder and above all, a priceless spiritual heritage to the people of India for thousands of years!!