THE ECOLOGICAL DISASTER AND GLOBAL WARMING IN OUR TIMES

Respected Sunder Lalji,
Namaskar (Show of love and respect).
Hope you are hale and hearty. It is my prayer to Ganga Matha (Mother Ganges) always. Mother Ganges is always in my dreams. To have a ‘darshan’ and also to have a dip in the sacred river is my long cherished dream. So far my wish remains unfulfilled. May God shower his blessings on me one day to make it possible.

It is a matter of great pain and sorrow to me whenever I overhear somebody or whenever I read about it or witness the present plight of Mother Ganges. But my love and devotion to sacred river increase only. Water getting polluted by factories built along the sides of the river by pumping the effluents to the river, people throwing waste material into the water, corpses and decapitated parts of animals, all Mother Ganges carries along its long and tedious journey to the ocean. Once the delight and pleasure of a nation with its sparkling, pure, transparent water has now turned out to be the pain and sorrow of the nation. Those who ought to, I mean the ruling class, to make Mother Ganges pollution free, is turning a deaf ear to the pleas of more than one billion people of the nation forgetting the rich heritage about which we take proud of. In the name of development mantra, landmarks of the past are being demolished ignoring the protests of the environmentalists and lovers of natural landscapes affecting our the bio-diversity of our nation. Are building giant dams across the rivers of a nation or evacuating farmers who till vast areas of fields and feed us and in its place building factories and multi-storeyed buildings, spreading out a red carpet to multi-nationals and promoting their products across the country, the signs of development of a nation? In the process those who are left in the lurch literally are the farmers, who are evacuated from their lands by paying them meagre amounts as compensation for rehabilitation- they don’t get even the allotted amount from the government and only those who have got influence in the higher echelons of power get away with the amount and thus the number of homeless, landless people increases, some even moving to the nearby cities to make both ends meet.

When I saw your photograph in the newspaper accepting Padmavibhushan, from our President, at the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapathi Bhavan with a smiling face, I was actually taken aback, a train of thoughts and memories passed through my mind.

You were a freedom fighter. You were the founder of ‘Chipko Movement’. You suffered a lot for our nation.

When the Government of India decided to proceed with the construction of Tehri Dam across the river Bhagirathi ,as an environmentalist you were in the forefront with your beloved wife Vimala Bahuguna and thousands of farmers and residents along the sides of the river to obstruct the plan of the Government on account of the consequences and hazards in the long run. The foot-hills of Himalayas are fragile and seismic and you were apprehensive of the massive damage it would cause in the event of an earthquake. The government was planning to build the fifth highest dam of the World across river Bhagirathi.

In 1991, you went on a fast unto death with your family and supporters by constructing a shed on the bank of Bhagirathi. The contract firm retaliated by snapping electric connection to the shed. But you were determined and held on to your resolve. The fast went on for 45 days and the Government intervened and pacified you. You withdrew the fast. Later you came to grip with your folly as the government of the day backtracked on its promises and you were compelled to undertake the fast again in 1995.

The fast lasted 45 days, the government had to intervene and cajoled you into withdrawing from the fast.

You fought for the poor farmers across river Bhagirathi. You always wanted Bhagirathi flow with its full vigour and dignity as before. The destruction of a mythical river was unbearable to you. The river believed to have been brought to earth by Bhagiratha was held dear by the residents on both sides of the river. The evacuation of lakhs of farmers from its sides was mind-boggling to you. There was not even a pre-planned rehabilitation package. The sum each got as rehabilitation package was only peanuts. The rich ones managed to extract from the government in plenty and the poor remained too poor and with their belongings, with tears in their eyes, with the agony of moving in different directions, some even had their mental balance shattered, disappeared into remote corners of the land.

Even after three fasts, in 1991, 1995 and 1998, you couldn’t succeed in your mission even the highest court of our land was in favour of Tehri Project, eventhough with a fractured verdict.

River Bhagirathi has lost its vibrancy, energetic flow and has got reduced to a trickle.

On Tehri Project, you once said “This dam is built on our tears”.

So what? Tehri produces 2400 MW of electricity. Ecological plunder, environmental destruction, hapless millions who lost their homes- who cares?

Never in my life did I expect you, accepting a Padma award or for that matter any award from the Government of India! If you had rejected the award outright it would have been a noble revenge and a jewel in your crown. After all who am I to cast aspersions on you?
Pranaam (Show of love and respect).