Ganga

Dr. G. D. Agrawal Scientist and Rishi

Meeting Dr. G. D. Agrawal in his spartan, two room cottage in Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh, you would never guess what an accomplished and distinguished scientist he is – first Member-Secretary of the Government of India’s Central Pollution Control Board, former Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at IIT Kanpur and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. The list goes on and on.

Yet this eminent professional sweeps his own floors, washes his own clothes and cooks his own meals. He retains only a few possessions and dresses in homespun khadi. At the age of 76, his main mode of transport within Chitrakoot is a bicycle and when he travels further afield, he goes by ordinary bus and second-class train. These are the deliberate choices of a devout Hindu whose deepest values are for simplicity and reverence for nature. Dr G.D. Agrawal is the doyen of environmental engineering professionals in India. Well past retirement, he continues to teach and inspire students as an Honorary Professor of Environmental Sciences at the Mahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramodaya Vishwavidyalaya, in Chitrakoot (M.P.).

Forwarded to the Portal by: Ayan Biswas
Image and News Courtesy: 

Shankracharya designate Swami Avimukteshwaranand ji presided over an emergency meeting organized by Manushi Sangathan, Ganga Ahvaan and Ganga Yamuna Jal Biradri to express our strong protest against the patently illegal decision of the Group of Ministers giving clearance to the Loharinag-Pala dam on the Ganga River. The following expert members of the NGRBA also participated in the meeting to express their strong protest having been kept in the dark about the appointment of the GoM which has passed a virtual death sentence on the most sacred river of India: Rashid Hyatt Siddiqui, Rajendra Singh, Rama Raota and Ravi Chopra.

The study develops regional flood frequency relationship and flood formulae based on recently developed efficient techniques of flood frequency analysis to estimate floods of desired return periods for small to moderate size gauged and ungauged catchments of the middle Ganga plains (sub-zone 1F) encompassing parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. A regional flood formula has been developed by coupling the L-moment based regional flood frequency relationship with the regional relationship between mean annual peak flood and the catchment area.

The study estimates the snow cover area for four major basins in the Himalayan region viz. Chenab up to Akhnoor, Ganga up to Devprayag, Satluj up to Bhakra and Beas up to Pandoh using IRS - IC and ID WiFS data. Snow cover estimation was done for the years 1997-2000 using image processing system ERDAS Imagine. The maximum and minimum snow cover extent for the month of September-October and March-April were delineated and on the basis of these the depletion curves for each basin was made for the four years. This output is useful for carrying out snowmelt runoff modeling.

Ground Report India

I recall the day two months before, when I had the opportunity to attend a seminar at the outskirt of Delhi. The hot topics, to be bothered and discussed in the gathering was: “Pollution of River Ganga & its Control and Preservation” (i.e. Ganga ka Pradushan … Ganga Bachao”).

And so, so early reached at the venue ignoring the shivering cold weather. However, it happened so, probably due to the chilly cold situations, that VIPs- honourable guests and invited respected audience reached one by one…. at last to conclude it to be ‘a late affair’!

Charter of All India Ganga Yamuna Panchayat submitted to Minister of Environment8-10 February 2010

 
In its concluding session on 10th February, the all India Ganga Yamuna Panchayat organized by Tarun Bharat Sangh and Manushi Sangathan presented a Charter of Demands to Minister of Environment, Mr Jairam Ramesh for the effective implementation of the New Ganga and Yamuna Action Plans.  The Panchayat was inaugurated on February 8th by Shri Digvijay Singh, General Secretary, All India Congress Committee at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library which hosted the Panchayat.

The book "Aaviral Ganga" explores the question of what is a dam, and of what the river Ganga means to us, and the impact of dams in the Ganga river valley”

The book "Dole mein Pole" is a case study of Srinagar Hydro Electric Project, on River Alaknanda(the main tributary of Ganga) how the 200 MW dam clearance was converted into 330 MW. There was no public hearing, no extra study, no monitoring, no compliance etc.

A recent study monitoring water quality of river Ganga in Hardwar shows that it does not meet the standards for outdoor bathing set by the Central Pollution Control Board. This is primarily due to the continuing discharge of untreated wastewater and effluents from various drains directly into the river. The outfall from the sewage treatment plant (STP) at Jagjeetpur alone releases about 129 million litres daily (MLD) into the Ganga with a fecal coliform concentration of about 34 million/100ml!

Scientists from People’s Science Institute (PSI) took samples from 10 drains falling into river Ganga at different locations in Hardwar on January 2^nd and 3^rd, 2010 along with samples of the river water at 3 locations.

Kanpur, November 24, 2009: Shri Alok Ranjan, IAS, Principal Secretary, UP Urban Development and Environment, inaugurated the workshop organized by WWF India, Kanpur Nagar Nigam and IIT Kanpur.

Once it is known that the system of administration and management of water resources has grown in a manner which is not conducive to productivity and efficiency, then what options are we left with? How do we analyze the state of the system, so that the critical points are identified and improved upon?