By Mohini Priya Devi Dasi
For the full month of Karttik the campaign to Save and Bring Back Holy River Yamuna Ji to Braj has been going on at world famous Krishna Balaram Mandir, Vrindavan, which was founded by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and is run by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).
During the campaign 30 000 petitions to the government of India have been signed.
Up to now not a single drop of original sacred Yamuna water is reaching holy cities like Mathura, Gokhul and Vrindavan in Braj, where every year millions of pilgrims are going to take their holy bath and sip. – But nowadays they do bath in the sewage line of Delhi and beyond only.
Thus the petitioners demand the implementation of Supreme High Courts orders regarding the securing of minimum flow of original Yamuna water in the river bed as well as measures for pollution control and sewage treatment.
Many famous temples of Vrindavan such as Radha Damodara temple, Radha Gopinath temple, Radha Shyamasundara temple, Radha Govindaji temple, Radha Raman temple, Gopeshvara Mahadeva temple as well as temple in Raval have joined hands in the campaign.
Krishna takes on the fight Himself against the government of India. His house is loitered with sewage. His beloved river Yamuna is taken away and the feelings of his devotees are being trampled upon.
The signed petitions are an expression of concern of people worldwide about the ecological as well as spiritual /cultural disaster that river Yamuna stands for. Together with over 100 000 signatures collected by different organizations and communities that joined hands as well as hundreds of awareness campaigns conducted worldwide it is a loud call to authorities for immediate action to change the destiny of this holy river.
India’s liquid icon, proudly sung of even in its national anthem, is at present a black spot on the country’s image. The River Yamuna, one of the most sacred rivers on earth, has now also become one of the most polluted.
An overload of domestic and industrial sewage, coupled with the lack of any fresh water due to the Hathini Kund Barrage diversions of 97% of total waters, the river is not only gravely endangered but beyond Delhi, factually dead. The goddess Yamuna Ji has been deprived of her dignity by being reduced to a mere shadow of her former glory. She has merely become the sewage carrier of Delhi.
The fight for this most sacred river, which is already going on for many years, had gained tremendous momentum after the famous saint Shri Ramesh Baba Ji Maharaaj from Maan Mandir, Barsana, had emphasized the urgency to save Krishna´s beloved river – Shri Yamuna Ji.
After successfully winning the battle against mining mafias in Braj-Vrindavan, who were brutally destroying the holy land of Sri Krishna, it´s monuments, holy hills and the culture of Bhraj Bhoomi, he had inaugurated a 45 days historical protest march for River Yamuna Ji in March 2011. That protest was joined by thousands of farmers of Bhartiya Kisan Union as well as saints of Braj Bhoomi and led to the Prime Minister´s Office.
Followed by a hunger strike of 70 people for almost two weeks and a one month long protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi the participants aimed to get the Supreme High Court orders, that demand the release of minimum flow of Yamuna water into the riverbed* as well as a truck sewerage system for Delhi stretch implemented by the government.
Already far back in 1992 a Public Interest Petition case titled Cdr Sureshwar D Sinha Vs Union of India W.P.(C) 537 had sought the enforcement of measures to stop the high rate of pollution in the river Yamuna at Delhi as well as the court’s orders to permit fair levels of water flow in the rivers Ganga and Yamuna that have been severely curtailed depriving millions of people in downstream areas of the benefits of these rivers.
Thus the Supreme Court had formed a High Powered committee which ordered fair levels of water flow as well as a truck sewerage system along the Delhi stretch of the river amongst other short term measures.**
After all those years however the High Powered Committee has not been able to implement the 10 cusec natural flow of Yamunotri waters in Delhi nor being able to secured the ordered amount of water from Haryana to Nazafgarh Drain.
Also still today the river Yamuna is jailed away at Hathini Kund Barrage (Hariyana) and the ordered minimum flow of original river water in river bed is far from being secured. Instead the river bed is lying dried up for about 9 month a year to be plundered by sand and stone mafias only.
Furthermore despite the efforts of Yamuna Action Plan 1 and 2 the river continues to be polluted with large amounts of untreated sewage and industrial wastewater in Delhi stretch as the proposed sewage trunk running parallel to Yamuna bed is nowhere in sight physically or in mention.
Despite all money that has been spent in the programs to save the river Yamuna the outcome seems to have very little impact at all and the situation is not improving. Today the river is even more polluted than when the programs started.
And no matter how much effort the government will continue to put into treating the polluted waters it will not be able to bring the water quality down to 3 BOD*** which is considered to be bathing water quality according to Indian standards.
They themselves claim that with the best treatments and cleaning efforts, that they propose to do in the next several years, it shall be possible only to come down to 15 BOD.
Hence the securing of the flow of original, fresh Yamuna waters in its riverbed throughout all year, as already ordered by the Supreme High Court, is not only an option but a must in order to effectively bring the pollution level down.
Until this measure is not put into action most of the money spent on river Yamuna will simply continue to go down the drain.
Thus the devotees of Krishna and environmental conscious people worldwide cannot stand this situation any longer and join hands across borders and institutions in order to fight for the noble cause to change the situation to the better.
They want the original Yamuna waters flowing back in the holy land of Braj /Vrindavan and not only treated sewage.
Especially ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) has been instrumental in spreading the awareness about the issues related to the river Yamuna worldwide and thus giving a healthy message of unity to entire Hindu community.
The ecological death of the river Yamuna is not only becoming a shameful symbol of the environmental problems India faces today but furthermore the dying goddess is becoming a symbol of the dying of India’s culture and spirituality. From this perspective Saving Yamuna River is not only a question of saving a river from ecological disaster but most of all a question of saving a whole country from spiritual decay.
Please sign the petition at www.saveyamuna.org
*140 cusecs of water in the canal from Haryana to Najafgarh drain as well as 160 cusecs released from Hathini Kund Barrage
**Since the availability of even 10 cumecs of fresh water in the river particularly along Delhi will not be adequate for the purpose of dilution of treated waste water to bring its BOD down to the desired level, construction of a truck sewerage system along the Delhi stretch of the river (between Wazirabad and Okhla) to carry the treated waste water up to Okhla for irrigation purposes is necessary. From Okhla, the treated sewage water should be entirely diverted for irrigation through the existing canal system.
***BOD – Biochemical oxygen demand is the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms in a body of water to break down organic material present in a given water sample at certain temperature over a specific time period.