Just before the advent of Āṣāḍha [आषाढ] we got an
alarm signal from Haridwar. Apprehension ran high: Is a four year old episode
going to be re-enacted? Four years back, Swami Nigamananda died on Day-115 of
his fast on June 13, 2011. And on June 2015, an uneasy calm was prevailing in
Matri Sadan, the ashrama [hermitage] of Nigamanda. The elderly saint Shivanand, Matri Sadan chief, just ended his fast on
June 7, after the Uttarakhand Chief Minister assured him that steps would be
taken to end illegal mining-quarrying around the Ganga. There was an air of
disbelief, as the swami and his fellow seers and environmentalists felt they were
being betrayed time and again [Times of India, Dehradun, 28.05.15].
 |
| Nigamananda with Swami Shivananda, a 2011 picture |
 |
| Swami Nigamananda |
What is most
unfortunate is that Nigamananda could not attract limelight in our hallowed Indian
Media during his prolonged fast. Less than a handful of print media and
electronic media paid attention to his struggle when he was still living. Only
through his martyrdom he could bring into focus the issue of killing of a river
ruthlessly, the ‘sacred’ Ganga.
But does a river
worth dying for and that too at an early age of just 34? Is it spiritual ‘fanatism’?
When the river is
Ganga, of course presence of a spiritual or religious bent of mind comes in the
forefront. We have not forgotten yet the 1969 Beatles piece ‘Across theUniverse’, which was born in a place just a few miles away from the ashrama
where Nigamananda stayed. The Ganga is one of the seven holy rivers taking
whose name any Hindu puja starts. It is also a revered Goddess who is
believed to cleanse people from all their sins once they take holy dip.
Almost
simultaneously, if not before, the aesthetic aspect presents itself. Not just
the breathtaking mountains, the glaciers where the journey begins, the rapid brooks
that run down the forests on hills, but also with the long 2500+ kilometres
journey through the soothing plains ending in the largest mangrove delta of the
world, the Sunderbans, the Ganga is unique.
Besides, there are
worldlier, mundane facets too: like the ecological, social and economic. Onno Ruhl, World Bank India
Country Director, in an article published in December 2014, estimated that the
Ganga basin is home of around 600 million Indians, and other estimates show
that more than 450 million Indians are dependent on this river for municipal
drinking water, irrigation and etcetera. Ruhl further said that this basin
generates around 40% of country’s GDP. Which means, in PPP (purchasing power
parity) terms, $2.96 Trillion (international $), which is more than GDP of
Indonesia, France or the UK (all in PPP terms). 450-600 million people, $2.96
Trillion – well, these are astounding figures, and this demographic-economic
aspect makes Ganga a very special river in the world.
Through
her 2500+ km journey, the Ganga hears songs, prayers, sobs and stories in
perhaps more than 25 languages and dialects. She shelters more than 250
different kinds of fish belonging to more than 100 genera and also the Gangetic
Dolphin – a rare species – that actually finds its food by ultrasonic search.
Several marine fish species like the exquisite Hilsa swim up the river for
their fresh-water breeding every year. By these natural ‘blessings’ she gives
livelihood to some 16,000,000 fishermen. And river transport provides jobs to
millions more. In sum, she harbours a unique bio and socio diversity which
perhaps no other river in the world can match. No amount of compensation can be
equivalent to her disfiguring by the ruthless exploiters for their individual
profits, be that in the name of ‘development’.
Even
the governments understand the social and economic aspects, even if partially. In
a government discussion on Ganga in the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun,
water resource minister Uma Bharati commented, “The cleaning and conservation of the Ganga is an economic issue and not
just a religious one. The Ganga is more of a lifeline to Indians than a mere
holy river.”
[July 2, 2015] A massive multi-billion dollar cleansing operation has started.
Previously, in the Rajiv Gandhi era in the 1980s, we had the Ganga Action Plan.
In the 1990s we had GAP-II. The ‘economic’ value of Ganga was also calculated
by WTP analysis (‘Willingness to Pay’) in the 1990s and published in the year
2000 (Cleaning-up the Ganges: A Cost-benefitAnalysis of the Ganga Action Plan, Markandaya and Murty, Oxford University Press), which showed that an average educated Indian
was willing to pay some 180-500 Rs for cleaning Ganga, which in 1998-99
currency exchange rate, comes to some $ 4–12 USD.
But what makes
many eminent scientists and also the seers sceptical is that environmental load
on the river is continuously on the increase, it is unabated, if looked from
biological-chemical angle and on the other hand, by ‘developmental’ activities
the hydro-geology of the river is threatened. Innumerable dams not only changed
the flow but also threatening aquatic species by habitat fragmentation. And
this problem was one of the main reasons behind the 2013 flooding disaster. Another
such demon is quarrying near and even in the Ganga bed. Near Haridwar and
Dehradun there are more than 140 ultramodern stone crushing plants which feed
on Gangetic stone quarries. This is doing havoc to river hydrology and
groundwater table of all the geography nearby by diverting, sinking and
subduing water. This crisis was fought be many seers and scientists including.
The peaceful seers met cruel apathy and even violent interference. The NationalGeographic reported these on Dec 9, 2011 (Dan Morrison’s column). But perhaps
those seers are least concerned with their own bodily existence and they
continue their fight for the Ganga, the lifeline of India.
Nigamananda was in his prime youth, he
sacrificed his life in his mid thirties. He might not have been fellow
traveller of all of us in terms of life’s journey; but the essence of his cause
is ours. We shall remember him and his crusade with due honour.
