NEW DELHI, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Rivers of India are often called its lifeline. They are revered and worshipped by people who got their identities in the ancient times by settling near rivers.
Till today, many states, now metropolises, are situated on riverbanks, thriving from the resources that it provides them.
Water bodies have sustained the country since olden times and continue doing so till date.
However, in the past two decades, the burden of human and river ecosystem interaction have changed the natural processes of various rivers. Unsustainable and indiscriminate use have dried rivers and irreparably damaged their ecosystem.
While environmentalists have been pointing to the alarming situation since a long time with research and activism both, successive governments failed to take tough, even extreme measures that were needed to both create awareness and prevent their deterioration. Thus, while Indian economy ramped up in recent years, its rivers became so polluted that life within them are dying.
"The efforts to clean up the rivers ran into the sand as politicians and environmentalists differed on how to do the job, with none following the green court laws and... projects being blighted by corruption and long delays," said Dilip Bose, an environmentalist.
After coming to power in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government launched staunch measures which were the need of the hour to save the rivers. The prime minister himself made an emotional appeal to the citizens, turning towards mythology and tradition, to save rivers. He insisted that economic development and elevation of people from poverty would not come at the cost of rivers.
River conservation was the sharp focus keeping which in mind the government set up a ministry dedicated to cleaning up of the holy Ganga river as part of its foremost measures.
The prime minister appointed Uma Bharti to lead the ministry. Bharti had been advocating for long to save Ganga, approaching politicians from across all parties seeking quick and effective action, said a government official.
The ministry set up basic monitoring and compliance mechanisms to ensure rules were met with. The government also attempted to address the issue with the launch of a project, which sought to increase enforcement of regulations against dumping of toxic waste into the river and increasing sewage treatment plants.
As part of the proposal, the government also worked towards discouraging the release of dead bodies to the river and built crematoriums along with the river banks. Toilets were also built near the river banks to discourage people from defecating into the open, especially near the river.
"It was a deep challenge staring in the face of the government when it took over in 2014. After all, the Ganga Action Plan had been launched 30 years ago and since then, two major rivers of India had died," said S.K. Jairam, a former Delhi University professor.
"The government's strategy was anchored towards providing finances, setting up municipalities for rivers, even bringing in private partners to clip in leakages in project implementation and taking loans from banks for the same. These alternatives worked really well in making various agencies active towards saving our rivers," he added.
All these efforts towards rivers coincided with the blue-eyed project of the Modi government, the Swachh Bharat (Clean India) campaign, also touted as India's biggest cleanliness drive.
"Part of the project was to create awareness among people who made rivers part of their rituals to not pollute them. That required a cultural clean-up, a conscious attempt to re-attach people emotionally towards rivers and take responsibility towards protecting them," said the ministry official.
The recent Rally for Rivers is again a social and cultural part of the project to campaign for rivers.
"We roped in celebrities, including Bollywood stars, to pledge their support and plead with their fans to prevent this rapid depletion. The campaign will go all parts of the country to create mass awareness, revive rivers that have vanished and those major ones that have become seasonal," said K.K. Dasgupta, who spearheads one of the campaigns.
"It will lead to development of a sense of solidarity on the issue and we have specially roped in schoolchildren for the same," he added.
To this end, the organizers have been using the platforms of social media, e-mails, calls, web tools, person-to-person contact and more.
The government also started to promote revival of other rivers which were bearing the brunt of ignorance to create small examples of success. One such example is of the Narmada Seva Mission which was launched to save Narmada, also referred to as the lifeline of Madhya Pradesh.
Similarly in Ahmedabad, the Sabarmati was rejuvenated in the heart of the city by planting trees and along the polluted river. Three years later, the river which was toxic with sewage and chemicals, is a source of fresh water. The trees along it form a bio-park and it is a source of pride for the people of Gujarat.
However, there are other groups that have suggested it was time to take some extreme measures to honor the rivers.
"We have failed in our duty to protect, nourish and save our rivers. There is a need to give them their due. We need to give the rivers legal rights, i.e., allow them to flow freely as is their natural course. It is a part of creating awareness towards rivers; the movement started with Ganga and Yamuna which were given legal protection as a person. We are looking to extend it to other major river bodies as well," said Manik Khan, a lawyer based in Delhi.
Activists say while the government moved along with novel intentions, it needs to fasten the pace on these plans and not extend the timeline any further to show tangible results in the near future.
"The concerns of activists are acknowledged by the government. But the fact is that never before any government initiated projects of this magnitude. We are not looking at fully restoring the rivers immediately but we need to see high to reach a midpoint," added the government official.
