Keoladeo: A Gambhir Matter

Those of you who spotted the pun in the title get full marks in the Dying River Identification Test. The Gambhir is one of the two rivers that cause Keoladeo National Park (formerly the Bharatpur bird sanctuary) to exist. Simply put, no river = no wetlands = no birds.

The 'no river' is not a hypothesis, either.This river, like all others, has been dammed along its length. In recent years, a series of protests have moved the government to drastically reduce releases from the Panchana dam and block water to the National Park. Last year, this issue was 'resolved' by developing a Rs.56 crore plan to bring water from the Govardhan river, 17 kms away.

This is disturbing for several reasons:
1. The whole struggle hinged upon 'are farmers more important than birds?'. This is rhetoric aimed to inflame emotions rather than a real question. The truth is that both farms AND birds are part of the ecosystem and benefit from instream flows.

2. The 'solution' is not a solution, but a band-aid fix. Negotiations would be a true solution. Inter-basin transfer, even at a relatively small scale is not only eco-illogical, but also vulnerable to future protests. Water 'stolen' from another basin is not an assured source.

3. The plan to provide water to the park was not really made for the sake of the birds who journey here from Siberia and are bewildered when they encounter a dry expanse. Still less was it made for the eco-system. It was made because Keoladeo has World Heritage Status and losing it would mean some loss of face for India. The action is good, but the motive? In case you are not against an anthropomorphic view of an ecosystem, this poem might interest you and hopefully inspire the conservation of an ecosystem for it's own right to exist..

so we found them..

but are we going to lose them again?

Frogs that fly and fish that clamber up rocks..the article I read today reminded me of the fairy stories I heard as a child of flying horses and talking geese. But guess what? All these are real, true animals. 350 new species have been discovered in the Himalayas in the last decade.
But maybe I am not too wrong after all. In a very short while, the animals might just be found in stories and in the pages of old journals. The rampant hydropower development happening in the Himalayan region will cause rivers to stop flowing, irreparably change the environment, and affect the local climate. This may just prove too much for even these tough, resilient creatures to survive.
The thing about extinction is that it is depressingly final. Once there is no longer a viable population left, it’s gone. Forever. For always. Gone. From everywhere. One incredibly complex, intelligent, fascinating, important part of the world is no longer there. Why? Because I want an air-conditioned mall. Hmmm.
Incidentally, the rather cool photo of the frog, and the article accompanying it can be read here.

childhood memories

Rivers and us, it’s simple. We didn’t need to spend too much time on what we would name this blog. We want to use this platform to talk about rivers and what they mean to us, inviting as many people as possible to share their experiences and stories. City life doesn’t offer one many chances to witness a river in all its rapturous glory. Most rivers in the city are tamed and packaged to cater to groups of loud, boisterous, picnicking families and tourists. At least the fortunate ones are, the rest are merely carriers of sewage.

As much as we’d like to disassociate ourselves from such embarrassing childhood memories (like almost drowning and being rescued only to find your swimming trunks weren’t as fortunate) most of us have at least one childhood memory revolving around some water body: a river, a lake or a pond. So, what is your happy memory? We’d love to hear it. Drop us a comment.

Rivers and us

Well, ok. So the first questions would be, why rivers and why us. And hot on the heels of those would be ‘Who is us?’

It will be tough to separate the first two, they are linked so. We are a part of an NGO called the People’s Science Institute (PSI) that works in the central Himalayas, mainly in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Uttarakhand is the birthplace of many magnificent rivers, chief of which is the Ganga. Rivers are likened to mothers for a very simple reason- they support life. Not only are riparian and freshwater ecosystems dependent upon them, but so are civilizations. The various kinds of life that rivers support, from the iconic Gangetic Dolphin to the humble mayfly, have their roles in keeping our web of life intact. Even if we were to consider it purely from a human point of view, it would be a sad, lonely, inhospitable world if rivers ceased to flow.

Sadly, that is just what is happening in most of the world. Excessive consumption, indiscriminate damming, and unrestricted pollution are all combining forces to kill our rivers. In Uttarakhand and other Himalayan states, the mind-boggling number of dams is killing our rivers and our mountains in one fell swoop.

And that is why rivers and why us.

But ‘us’ is not just this little group of enthusiastic river-lovers, or just PSI. It is everyone who feels a connection to a river, any river, and considers rivers worth protecting.