Conserving and restoring water bodies is key to the very survival of man. India should build on its civilisational reverence for water to secure its future, and growing, needs, writes RAJNEESH KAPUR
According to scientists, as a chemical compound, water is a simple combination of two hydrogen atoms joined with one oxygen atom. But for the world at large, it is perhaps the most precious thing that man has. After all, more than 97 per cent of water is saline. Of the remaining less than three per cent of fresh water, two per cent is locked in ice. So, it is a mere one per cent of water that is available for consumption. Science also states that the amount of moisture on earth has not changed and the amount of water available to dinosaurs millions of years ago is equal to the water that falls as raindrops today.
But soon there will be not be enough water for all of us. With 83 million more people on earth every year, the demand for water is going up. Besides, we use two-thirds of our water to grow food. No wonder, talks are already on about a hypothetical water war, and estimates even put two billion people living with no or very little water by 2025. The solution therefore lies in saving, restoring and recharging our water bodies.
Indians have been culturally conscious about the prized nature of water since the beginning of civilisation. Be it the nadi suktas of the Vedas or the divine status given to the sapta sindhus, we have revered our rivers and water bodies as the perennial source of life. No pilgrimage is considered complete without a dip into one of the holy rivers or pushkarinis (ponds) or kunds (tanks).
Almost all temples and shrines have water bodies attached to them. In Rameshwaram, for instance, there are 22 water tanks inside the temple premises. Nowhere is the significance of water more evident than in Brajbhoomi, where the Yamuna and hundreds of kunds are integral to the Krishna legend.
The water bodies of Braj, known as kunds or sarovars, have a significance that goes beyond the social and the spiritual. There were more than 1,000 kunds, all of which were a source of fresh water in Braj in earlier times. The water was used for multiple purposes such as irrigation, domestic consumption, drinking purposes, bathing, etc. Due to rapid urbanisation, lack of maintenance and prolonged negligence, 80 per cent of the kunds have silted up and been relegated to the verge of extinction in the last 200 years alone.
Till nearly a decade ago, most of the dried or semi-dried sources of water remained unidentified, with many of them turning into garbage dumps. This is when a non-Government organisation, The Braj Foundation, led by the inspiration of the revolutionary saint of Barsana and spearheaded by well-known crusading journalist Vineet Narain, stepped in.
Identifying and systematically documenting more than 400 forgotten kunds, including the historical ones, volunteers of the Braj Foundation started a mammoth task that many officials and Government agencies had shied away from. Beginning in 2005, the NGO, braving initial hesitation of villagers and opposition from vested interests, started the process of restoring ancient kunds.
Till date, it has successfully re-charged as many as 46 of them. Hence, it has created an additional water retention capacity of five lakh cubic metres, according to Mr RK Gautam, the Braj Foundation’s project director. Perhaps the most prominent case is that of the historic Brahma Kund, which is considered to be the Brahmasthal or the spiritual epicentre in the heart of Vrindavan. It is one of the eight ancient kunds in Vrindavan associated with Krishna's leela.
These and other restorations have led to manifold results —from environmental to religious to tourism-related and cultural — and also to an all-round development, centered on re-charging and conserving water bodies.
(The writer is a Mathura-Vrindavan based environmentalist)