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PRESS RELEASE
June 5, 2008 Save The Ganga Campaign “Yudhishthira asked:
The Rishi crowned with success said: Those countries, those provinces, those retreats, and those mountains, should be regarded as the foremost in point of sanctity through which or by the side of which that foremost of all rivers, viz., Bhagirathi (Ganga or Ganges) flows.”
From The Mahabharata
Ganga is the lifeline of our crores of people and crores of our people consider her to be their divine mother. It is deeply painful to know that disrupting the continuity, quantity and quality of the flows of the Ganga, the government of India has been promoting a number of hydro-electric projects on various rivers of the Ganga valley in Uttarakhand including the the Bhagirathi to tap their enormous hydro-power potential. Uttarakhand, which is fast emerging as the new "energy state", has an ambitious plan to generate 25,000-30,000 Mw in the next three to ten years through these hydel projects. Big companies like Reliance Energy, GVK, GMR, NHPC, THDC and NTPC are into the power business in the hill state. But all is not well with these dams. From Pithoragarh district in the Kumaon region to Chamoli district in Garhwal, the new projects have uprooted thousands of people and sounded the death-knell for several towns and villages. According to Mainstream Weekly dated 27th April 2008 the Uttarakhand government is acquiring land all over the State for building, expanding and renewing 98 hydropower projects. With this large-scale activity it seeks to make the State a major powerhouse. Most of these will be, what is called, run-of-the-river projects, generating power from the flow of rivers, without building dams on them. The tiny state will not need all this energy. It will be to promote market economy. The mainstream Bhagirathi future is at stake due to the upcoming hydroelectric schemes in Ganga Valley. Five upcoming projects on upstream of Bhagirathi reduces its flow till Tehri. The output of Tehri Dam electricity has come down to less than 100MW and we all know about the landslides happening their as a result of changing hydrogeology.
The campaign was launched to create awareness of disappearing Bhagirathi as the flow gets imprisoned in more and more dam projects. Navdanya's Tehri dam Rehabilitation Initiative is all about working with women on impact of Tehri dam.
An eight kilometre stretch of the Bhagirathi river has dried up. Google Earth pictures show the river snaking through the Himalayas as one long, sandy stretch without any water. The same stretch was one kilometre long in 2004. Recent satellite pictures taken by Google Earth confirm the worst fears of environmentalists. Other rivers emanating from the Gangotri glacier, including the Bhilangana, the Assi Ganga and the Alaknanda -- all tributaries of the Ganga -- are also drying up. When the Tehri dam was being built over a decade ago, environment activists had warned that it would bring about a demise of all major rivers emanating from the Gangotri glacier. The Bhagirathi is the largest of the tributaries of the Ganga. If it can dry up, we can imagine the fate of the smaller rivers. Tehri is facing imminent threat of closure because of reduced flow in the Bhagirathi. The Tehri dam is situated at the confluence of the Bhagirathi and the Bhilangana.Uttar Pradesh's chief engineer (Ganga) Harishankar Sharma confirms says that supply to the upper Ganga canal is on the decline as they are receiving less water from the Tehri dam.Sharma adds: “There is no availability of water from Deoprayag. The entire water supply system, which is based on the Ganga canal, has collapsed. The construction of the Tehri dam pioneered the concept of big dams and wreaked havoc on the lives of nearly 100,000 people. Along with the Old Tehri town, the erstwhile capital of the Tehri kingdom set up by Maharaja Sudershan Shah in 1815, over 100 other villages met their watery grave. In Pithoragarh, the 280-Mw Dhauliganga project jolted Ailagarh village, from where 24 families were uprooted two years ago. Nearly 50 km from Ailagarh, the central government is now planning to construct the mega 6,000-Mw Pancheshwar hydel project, thrice the size of the Tehri dam, on river Kali on the Indo-Nepal border. This is likely to uproot nearly 80,000 people. Environmentalists claim these projects will "swallow" the river once they start building their tunnels. people in Chamoli district are agitated over the construction of huge tunnels. Another mega project on river Alaknanda near Joshimath is creating a slope instability problem for Joshimath town. The list goes on. Sadly, except for towns like Uttarkashi and Harsil, the Bhagirathi river would be forced to pass through long, dark tunnels. G.D. Agrawal a much sought-after EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) consultant and a passionate Ganga devotee will go on a “fast-unto-death” from Ganga-Dashehra, June 13, 2008 to oppose the foul meddling going on with the stream of Bhagirathi upstream of Uttarkashi. Environment activists warns that if the Ganga dries up upstream, million of farmers who are dependent on its water for their agriculture will lose their livelihoods. Our Demands
For further information please contact: Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology / Navdanya
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