The Death Of A River

Dear One,

'In a few more years, I am destined to meet my death in your hands. Yes you, the one who is reading this in careless apathy.'

'Who am I?'

'I was once the life line of your blessed country, where people were less educated by your standards, but more informed than you. I belong to the race of Ancients, who worshipped me as their very soul and treated me with due respect and dignity. Now I am reduced to a mere channel of sewage waste and my soul is tainted with your countless sins.'

'My name is Ganga and I am dying.'

'My source is at Gaumukh, where I emerge mighty from the Gangotri glaciers. Here I am known as 'Bhagirathi', in honor of the King who successfully channeled me down from the very heavens to salvage many damned souls on earth. Rising from the icy caves of Gangotri glacier, I start my long and arduous journey, gushing through many courses, and join my sister Alaknanda to form the Mighty Ganga.'

'Eons of praise and prayers have been composed in my honor by the ancients. The power in my soul has granted salvation to millions of dying souls. My waters have been blessed by the touch of the Mahadev, capable of transforming a sinner into a veritable saint. In my bosom, lies the love for Hari, who makes me pristine and complete. Your modern scientists too have verified my purificatory properties with modern techniques. I hold the key to life and I am the true Mother of the Indian race; but you have neglected me, leading to my watery grave.'

'I was the crown jewel of the Indian sub-continent, and now I am reduced to a mere dumping ground of dangerous waste from factories. I no longer have the power to purify any soul, as my own soul is blackened by your misdeeds over the ages. I am now filled with hazardous chemical wastes, sewage and even the remains of human and animal corpses lying strewn in decay. Nearly 1.3 billion liters of sewage is pumped in me DAILY by you inscrutable Indians.'

'What have you done to me? I took care of your forefathers and granted them all their desires and wishes to come true, but you have failed to take care of me. Is this how you repay for my love and kindness?'

'Do you know my past was so glorious and holy; it filled every heart with joy upon merely seeing me. Now, if you look at me I am so filled with disgust and filth, especially from factories and tanneries which dispose their dangerous by products in the form of chromium, sulphide ammonium and other deadly chemical mix. Your quest for modernization has left me in a death trap and my waters are now a concocted mix of hydrochloric acid, mercury and other dangerous metals, bleaches and dyes, pesticides, and polychlorinated biphenyls, a highly toxic compound that accumulate in animal and human tissues.'

'In 1996, the Supreme Court had banned the discharge of effluents from various tanneries and factories located on its banks in Kanpur, but who cares. Decades-long efforts by the government to breathe life into me through massive clean-up programs have come to naught. Consider this: Your government has spent over Rs 1,000 crore into the Ganga Action Plan I and II between 1985 and 2000, but yet India's holiest river is still sullied.'

'River Jordan, in Israel too has met with the same fate. It is set to die in 2011. Humans are a selfish and an  uncompromising breed. Their thirst for personal power and comfort doesn't deter them from going to the very extremes of selfishness and greed. You can exploit nature to the fullest in the name of science and technology and yet be oblivious to it's needs. What a detestable race you are. Even less intelligent animals show sympathy and respect to nature and it's laws. You claim to be the most intelligent of all creation, yet you don't even think of the ramifications of playing God? What a sad irony?'

'You don't have an inkling of Mother Nature's fury. You are selfishly tapping all her natural resources to it's extinction for your own personal needs. When Mother Nature's turns it's righteous wrath on you and your children, no technology of yours will be able to save you from your own extinction.'

'Today you celebrate Mother's Day. Along with your earthly mother, care to care for me too - Your Nation's Mother. Wake up and realize your responsibilities towards nature before it's too late.'

Visit this website http://www.savegangamovement.org/ and do your best to save me from yourself.

In peace,

S.R