Recently, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) prohibited cultivation of edible crops on the flood plains of the Yamuna river because the vegetables grown there are highly contaminated and their consumption can lead to cancer.Not only the Brahmputra, the Ganga, the Yamuna and other Himalaya rivers are polluted, but the phenomenon is found in all the rivers of India. The soil as well as water chemistry of all river and river plains of India shows they are polluted, posing a threat to not only of human beings but the entire animal and plant kingdom.
The Yamuna is a tributary of the Ganga like the Sonebhadra, the Ramaganga, the Gomati, the Surya, the Gandak and the Koshi. A major tributary of the Ganga, it starts from the Yamunotri which comes within the State Uttarakhand. It ultimately joins the Ganga at Allahabad forming a confluence with the Saraswati. It starts from an altitude of 6,330 metres from the mean sea level of Karachi and covers a distance of 1,376 km. The river forms 320 km common boundary of undivided Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. The major tributaries of the river are Gauri, Sahibi, and Hindon. It travels 970 km within the State of the undivided Uttar Pradesh.
The Yamuna supports various cities and towns, which are very much important from commercial as well as industrial point of views. There are also various hill stations of Hindu pilgrimage in the banks of the Yamuna throughout its course such as Uttarkashi, Kedarnnath, Mussoorie, Hardwar, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Bhagapal, Delhi, Noida, Agra, Ghaziabad, Bhaghpat, Brundaban, Mathura, Fatepur, Sikri, Firozabad and Allahabad. Cities like Mathura, Agra, Etah and Kanpur come within the course of this river. Similarly, there are small rivers which act as tributary of the Yamuna. lakhs of Hindu pilgrims come to the shrines in these spots to perform rituals.
Tons of garbage created out of performances of various rituals by pilgrims are thrown into the river Yamuna. Industrial and commercial activities in the cities and towns adjacent to the river are also responsible for spoiling the soil and water of the river. Most of the sensitive flora and fauna of the regions is now extinct due to constant and perpetual pollution. When soil, water and air are polluted and the health of nature is in jeopardy, it is obvious that the man has to suffer.
Over and above, large-scale leather industries are found in the towns and cities of Uttar Pradesh, which use tannic acid to convert animal skins into leather. The acid in different forms goes to nearby water sources and spoils the natural quality of Yamuna river ultimately.
The writer recently visited Mathura with family and the nearby holy Yamuna. So much is the pollution level that the river has been turned into a man-made sewerage system. When the whole water system of the region is poisoned, the soil is poisoned and the same poison permeates the plant kingdom of the region. The flood plains of the Yamuna are very fertile due to combination of soil profile made out of alpine and broad leaved forests of northern India. But due to pollution, its entire soil profile has gone wrong. The vegetables and fruits grown in the flood plains get contaminated and spoiled.
Coming to Odisha, the two large river systems like the Mahanadi and the Brahmani are thoroughly polluted for various reasons. Every day tons and tons of mining waste, fly ash, human waste, polythene and industrial effluents are dumped in the rivers. Defecation is also another cause of river pollution. Dead bodies of animals and human beings are also thrown into the rivers.
When Talcher – Angul zone is known for coal, Keonjhar – Mayurbhanj – Sundargarh zone is for mining and Baragarh-Rajgangpur zone for cement.The dusts emanating from these zones cause irreparable damage to the river ecology and the biodiversity. The wetlands suffer most for deposition of obnoxious debris. It is high time the Government woke up to the river pollution in the State and took remedial measures before things slip out of control like that has happened with the Yamuna river now.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist. Tel no 9937460649)