PANCHNADA: The Pani Morcha yatris take a breather from their campaign to save the holy rivers, remove their clothing and dive into the refreshing cool green waters at Panchnada in Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh so named because five rivers meet here. In fact, at the Sherghar Ghat, where the bathers splash around in the Yamuna in merry abandon and over which looms a hillock capped by Kuwari and Sind – flow into it; the other rivers link up with the Yamuna further upstream.

The Pani Morcha comprises essentially Delhi-based NGOs who have been concerned about the destruction of the once mighty Yamuna . The impetus for the yatra was provided by Commander Sureshwar D. Sinha’s petition in the Supreme Court that takes to task the Centre and the state governments through which the holy rivers meander, as well as their pollution control boards, for not bothering to prevent the discharge of industrial and municipal wastes into them.

As important is the issue of minimum flow raised by the petitioner. If there is no water in the river, it will be unable to perform its role of purifying/cleaning the effluents it has done throughout the ages. Thanks to the barrages/dams built upstream, the Yamuna ceases to flow at Okhla and the Ganges at Narora. The yatra thus began at Okhla and culminated at Narora to draw attention to the water policy of the government which is following the one imposed by the British whose major concern was to derive revenue (water cess) from farmers who benefitted by canal irrigation.

From Okhla, the yatris went to Vrindavan, Mathura, Agra, Etawah (on the banks of the Ganga). The strategy in each of these places was to (I) collect the river water samples for tests (ii) initiate a dialogue with local officials and (iii) distribute prepared literature among the public on the banks and educational institutions (Aligarh Muslim University and IIT Kanpur, among others).

The samples of water taken at various sites were examined for among other things the oxygen level (dissolved oxygen), the pH level (whether it was acidic or alkaline), turbidity (clarity), chloride content and ammonia content. The tests were conducted by students of the naval Public School and Ram Sewak of PSI.

For Delhi, the Yamuna waters were tested at three points: Wazirabad where it enters the capital, the mid-point level i.e. ITO, and Okhla where it exists. The D.O. levels were 4 (milligrams per litre) at Wazirabad, 1.2 at ITO, and 0 at Okhla. In other words at Okhla, near the sailing club before the barrage, the Yamuna contains no oxygen whatsoever. Little wonder then, that it supports no life here except a very virulent breed of mosquitoes.

From Okhla the yatris proceeded to the well-laid out park at Kalindi Kunj where they had the packed lunch provided by Deepak Nirula. Shortly thereafter, they boarded the bus made available for the trip by Vikram Lal of Eicher Holdings Private Limited. Funds for the yatra have been provided by INTACH, IGSSS and WWF. Local hospitality was extended by several individuals and institutions, in particular the Vraj Academy based at Vrindavan.

NGOs and Yatris
.	Rural Development Foundation of India (Sureshwar Sinha)
.	Development Research and Action Group (Anu Gupta, Gautam Vohra)
.	Gandhi Peace Foundation (Dwendra and Mukul Kalia)
.	World Wide Fund (Anup Sharma, Sanjay Rattan)
.	People’s Science Institute (Ram Sewak)
.	Sri Hari Gram Udyog Sewa Sansthan (K.B. Lal Modvel)
Other Yatris were from:
.	Naval Public School (Six students led by K. Srinivasan)
.	SMILE/IGSSS contingent led by Shivanee
.	Indian Express (Angana Parekh)
.	Economic Times (Kamil Zaheer)

For most of the city-bred yatris, the journey along the banks of the rivers, punctuated with halts at village dhabas and small towns, was an eye-opener, almost a re-discovery of their land. Occasionally we all pass through the countryside but rarely does the middle-class professional, comprising the majority of the yatris, have time to spend in the “sleepy villages and “dusty” mofussil towns en route.

The yatris, however, had plenty of time to wander the countryside during stop-overs and they saw a world which they had touch with. Some of their experiences had a dramatic component. As one of them recalls: “The rest of my companions were still asleep – we were spending the night at Anupam hotel – when I woke up. There were still several hours before our bus was scheduled to leave for Kanpur. I decided to walk on the wild side of Etawah – or so it seemed at five in the morning when the darkness had not yet lifted to be replaced by the harsh light of the April sun. The air smelt of woodsmoke and cowdung. The dark shape of the buildings cast an eerie spell on the somnolent town….As I walked down the gullies of Etawah it gradually came to life….the monkeys swinging from the Peepal tree onto the roof of a shop, grimacing at the onlooker, the goats rummaging for vegetable leaves left over from the previous evening and the pigs sniffing in the sewers….the tea shop wallah opening his dukan, the halwai beginning to arrange the kadai for frying the jalebis and the hawker selling nan kathai….as I passed them, their

presence registering in my subconscious, I saw an agitated crowd in one of the side lanes. I passed it by, but on my return the people were still there, more vociferous on this occasion, so I went towards them. There from the balcony of the haveli hung a middle-aged women trying to free her hand from the man who held her even as he urged her to jump shouting he did not care what happened to her. Suddenly the women twisted her hand free and fell on top of her relatives who were directly beneath her, making preparations for the rescue. They all tumbled into the open sewer. The crowd dispersed, and I made my way to the hotel to join the yatris.”

At Kanpur, samples of the Ganga water were collected under the Jajmau bridge, overlooking the Jajmau Uncha Tila (hillock), the residential colony of chamars who work in the tanneries nearby; and the other from Sidhuna ghat further downstream.

A stroll up the steep path in the two tilas (hillocks) on either side of the highway revealed the cramped conditions under which the leather workers survived. The description of their colony described in A Suitable Boy flooded the mind’s eye. One of its residents, a migrant from Gorakhpur, settled here 30 years ago recalled that there were open spaces all over the hillocks; now every inch had been taken over by hutments. The waters of the Ganga were then available for drinking. Ever since the tanneries began to discharge their effluents into the river, the river has become a source of disease. Even so, Mohammed Sajil, who works in Bengal Tanneries on :jacket pieces” which are sent for “finishing work” to Agra and from where they are exported, took his bath in the polluted Ganga because he could not afford to pay Rs 2 from his monthly salary of Rs 800, to Sulabh which has made the facility available in the chamar colony. For drinking water Mohammed relies on the single handpump for the thousands of residents; no one now dare drink the Ganga waters.

If the Ganga is polluted under Jajmau bridge, it is foul at the Sidhuna Ghat. For this is where the effluents of the tanneries discharged near the Jajmau bridge make their appearance. By four each evening the water is brown-black in colour, revealed the bathers who had come for their holy dip. Ram Dayal said by bringing his family early in the morning they avoided the discharge of the tanneries. Of course he knew, as did the pujari who stood barechested and feet immersed in the Ganga that the water was polluted. But they had to bathe in it; it was so urged by the scriptures; it was part of the parampara.

Thus after Ram Dayal had his dip, his children dutifully followed him into the Ganga.

From Kanpur, the yatris returned to Etawah for an overnight stay and the following morning left for Narora, their last halt. En route they decided to visit the students of Aligarh Muslim University. Unlike the Delhi University campus, which is spread all over, AMU faculty and residential buildings are essentially located on one street. Several look as if they could well do with a coat of paint.

Since the yatris arrival coincided with the lunch break, they headed for the students’ canteen and partook of a reasonably tasty subsidized meal. The sweet-dish of gulab jamuns and pista barfi was appreciated, and seconds were immediately ordered. The pamphlets were distributed and the students congregated in the dining room glanced through these with interest. A couple took the campaign lightly making aeroplanes of them to shoot at the yatris. A “leader type” offered to hold a students’ meetings’ to enable the yatris to inform them about their objectives in detail and secure the AMU support for the campaign.

It was evening of the seventh day that the bus brought the yatris to the Irrigation Department rest house, built by the British in their typical style with large verandahs, high roofs, and ceiling fans hanging low, disturbing the air just enough to frighten away the mosquitoes. The lawn contained a variety of exotic and local plants, flowering shrubs and cacti and a range of trees. As it overlooks the Ganga just before the Narora barrage, the river can be seen in all its glory. The sub-divisional officer of the irrigation department said that he had spotted the Blue Dolphin in it. Huge tortoises could be seen; alas they are being slaughtered by poachers. Every year hundreds of migratory birds from the corners of the earth descend on this part of the mighty river.

The next morning the yatris participated in a havan on the banks of the Ganga, the hymns invoking the river’s blessing, asking for forgiveness and guidance to server her better. Some yatris recalled a similar occasion a few days earlier, this time on the banks of the Yamuna at Vrindavan organised by Sripad baba of Vraj Academy. Like their ancients, the yatris bowed before the holy rivers along which civilisations had flourished or perished, depending on how each treated them: the way our “civilisation” is behaving with the rivers, it will not be long before it is destroyed. But the yatris maintain it is not too late to make amends and the discussions with NGOs and officials, in particular at Vrindaban and Agra, indicated that there was awareness of the urgent need to take action. But such action would depend upon the political will of the national and state level leadership. Is it willing to face up to the farmers’ lobby in the upper riparian states? For it ensures that the water are diverted to serve the farmers’ fields, denying the cities downstream of sufficient flow, in the process killing all life in the river, causing pollution, denying drinking water to the millions of people living on their banks, indeed, even poisoning them. Should this situation be allowed to persist?

Gudakesh is the pseudonym used by the founded-trustee of the NGO, DRAG. He is currently working on his second book on the new political elite.