Save Ganga Movement
A GANDHIAN NON-VIOLENT MOVEMENT FOR A NON-VIOLENT CULTURE OF DEVELOPMENT
Gandhi symbolizes a culture of Truth and non-violence, i.e. a culture of pursuit of ethical perfection as the ultimate goal of life and pursuit of selfless ethical life of universal love as its means; the Ganga, symbolizes all rivers and water bodies; and the Giriraj Himalaya, symbolizes all mountains, forests and wildlife.
7 Save Ganga Recommendations 2013
1) We must adopt throughout our country the policy of zero discharge into the rivers, and promote Reuse and Recycle of wastewater after proper treatment, conversion of sewage into natural manure, and organic farming for decreasing the non-point sources of pollution of rivers and also for maintaining soil fertility, checking the groundwater degradation, reducing water requirement of crops, protecting human health, etc., which the Consortium of 7 IITs has strongly recommended in its Draft Reports submitted to MoE&F. We must restore the bactericidal, health promoting, non-putrefying and self-purifying properties of the water of Ganga. We must not allow our development activities to deprive the masses the various invaluable services they have been getting freely since ages from the Ganga and its tributaries and their source the Himalayas.
2) Decision on the controversial issue of construction of eco-hostile dams for hydropower in the highly earth quake prone, eco-fragile, ecologically, aesthetically and religiously invaluable Himalaya region of the Ganga Basin must be postponed till the consortium of 7 IITs who are preparing the NGRBEMP makes a holistic scientific assessment of the short term as well as the long term beneficial as well as harmful consequences of the construction of hydropower plants, and we have a broad national consensus on the issue thorough an open critical debate of the assessment report.
3) The Ganga must be constitutionally declared as the National River with provisions that ensure due respect to her, considering her National River status.
4) We must have a high powered National Himalayan Ecology Preservation and Restoration Authority headed by Hon’ble Prime Minister to save the highly fragile invaluable ecology of the young Himalayas. The impending catastrophe of fast receding of Himalayan glaciers has to be understood and tackled at a regional and global level. At the regional level, it must involve all Himalayan nations. India should take a major global initiative in this direction to tackle this regional and global crisis.
5) To begin with we must make Uttarakhand an absolutely eco-friendly ideal Himalayan state and must take time-bound decisive steps to make the Yamuna at Delhi completely and permanently free from pollution, which would set an example for the entire country. ` An adequate flow of natural fresh water must be allowed to flow on the Yamuna bed throughout the stretch of the river throughout the year not only to protect and preserve its ecology but also to meet the basic water needs of the cities, towns and villages situated on its banks. It is highly deplorable that in dry season no water is allowed to flow in the Yamuna River downstream to Hathnikund barrage in Haryana and what reaches the holy cities of Mathura and Vrindavan is mainly the treated or untreated domestic and industrial waste water contributed by various drains joining the Yamuna at Delhi.
6)Like National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), we must now have a National Godavari and Krishna RiversBasin Authority (NGKRBA) to insure effective abatement of pollution and Preservation and Restoration of the rivers and their source, the invaluable ecology of the Western Ghates, through adopting a river basin approach for comprehensive holistic planning and management. Saving the Ganga and its tributaries and their source the Himalayas, and the Godavari and Krishna and their source the Western Ghats would be a major step in the direction to have sustainable development.
7) We must reflect over the Gandhian claim that the culture of having unlimited desires and going to the ends of the earth with the help of science and technology causing even great irreparable harm to earth’s life-sustaining natural eco-systems in search of their satisfaction is satanic and suicidal. We must also critically reflect over his thought on the non-violent way of development, which is the surest and perhaps the only solution to our impending catastrophic global ecological crisis.
Protection of the Ganga, symbolizing all rivers and water bodies, and the Giriraj Himalaya, symbolizing all mountains, forests and wildlife, must be accorded highest priority in our national development process. Ultimately, we must create a new paradigm of development for India based on the Gandhian principles of Truth and non-violence.
We request our Government to accept and implement the above recommendations to save the Ganga symbolizing all rivers and water bodies and the Himalayas symbolizing all mountains, forests and wildlife.
In the one day Save Ganga & Save Himalayas Meeting-Cum-Panel Discussion organized on 2nd October 2013 at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti to pay tribute to the apostle of Truth and non-violence of our age, the above Charter of 7 Recommendations were unanimously made to the government to save the Ganga symbolizing all rivers and water bodies and the Himalayas symbolizing all mountains, forests and wildlife.
H.H.Swami Tejomayanandji, Head, Worldwide Chinmaya Mission, Mumbai, Smt. Rama Rauta, Convenor, Save Ganga Movement & Expert Member, National Ganga River Basin Authority, Shri M.C. Mehta, Noted Environmentalist & Supreme Court Advocate, Prof. Vinod Tare, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and Co-coordinator, Ganga River Basin Management Plan, Prof. Shyam R. Asolekar, IIT Mumbai, Shri Rahul Dev, Noted Journalist, H.H. Prabhu Bhakti Rasamrit Swamiji , ISCKON, Mumbai, Prof Indrajit Dubey, IIT, Kharagpur, Dr. K. C. Sahu, Retd Prof, IIT, Mumbai, Dr. Anju Singh, IIT, Mumbai, Dr. A.K Mittal, IIT, Delhi, Dr. Rakesh Kumar, NEERI, Mumbai, Dr. S.N. Kaul, Retd Prof, NEERI, Nagpur, Advocate Shri Harshad Desai, Mumbai, Advocate Pradeep Mandhyal, Mumbai, Ms Niha Didi, Brahmakumari, Mumbai and many other distinguished persons from different streams of life were present in the function.
Mrs Rama Rauta,
Former Expert Member, National Ganga River Basin Authority, Govt. of India
(Headed by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India)
Founder and Convener, Save Ganga Movement
President, National Women’s Organization, Pune,
Phone:09765359040, Email: mailto: ramarauta@rediffmail.com ,ramarauta29@gmail.com
