Sunday, June 30, 2013

Yamuna



Rivers have decisive role in the development of history as well as civilization all over the world. It determines the intensity of vegetation and fertility of land. Historically river banks are the cradle of the origin of civilizations. There are so many things to learn from a river. It flows from the high land to low lands (humbleness and humility), it flows uninterruptedly, it has a destiny (Ocean), it carries materials and it tries to purify themselves.
While coming to the river Yamuna – it rises in the Yamunotri glacier which is to west of Ganga source. It is a right bank tributary of the Himalayan river Ganga. Yamuna flows towards south up to Agra and farther down towards the south east direction till it joins Ganga at Allahabad.  Chambal, Sindh, Betwa and Ken are its important tributaries. The length of the Yamuna is 1876 km from its source to Allahabad. It drains 359000 km2 area.
Even though Yamuna is sacred river industrialization affects the purity and divinity of the river. In the wake of the lackadaisical attitude of government and MoEF, Supreme Court’s seek to for an independent technical assessment on how the Yamuna can be revived from its deathly state. Yamuna and Ganga has been polluted by the torrents of untreated sewage. The Central Pollution Control Board has cautioned about the slow death of Yamuna between Hathnikund and Agra to the unmitigated discharge of effluents. Parliament was informed recently that the Ganga is so polluted with faecal coliform matter and it affected the water quality in the region Kanpur to Diamond Harbour in Kolkata. It will take another eight years under the Mission Clean Ganga for the flow of untreated sewage (exceeding 1,600 million litres a day) and industrial effluents into the river to stop. All this reflects an indolent approach to urban pollution control, which stands in contrast to hectic speculation in real estate (The Hindu). Now it s the moment to revive Yamuna Action Plan (third phase), Delhi Adminsitration, CPCB, MoEF and ecolovers to save this abysmal river from a dangerous end
Paul V Mathew

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