Senior Minister with the State Government Saryu Roy on Monday started ‘Save Damodar Yatra’ from Salagi of lohardaga. The journey would follow the terrain of the river throughout in Jharkhand and would end at Panchet, the border of West Bengal in order to generate awareness about the level of effluents into one of the world most polluted rivers.
“The ‘Devnad Damodar Mahotsava’ starting today would continue till June 4 on the occasion of Ganga Dussehra. The yatra would cover nearly 283 kilometers i.e. the length Damodar passes in Jharkhand before entering into West Bengal after Panchet of Dhanbad,” said Roy over phone.
He added that the initiative started way back in 2004 was aimed to save the suffocating river from becoming extinct. “Biodiversity of the river was vanishing and quality of its water had become so poor that even bathing was not preferable there. This is threshold stage in the life of a river to which the Damodar has reached. Though situation has improved a bit in last couple of years due to consistent yatras, protests and conventions,” said the Minister.
The journey after making a beginning from lohardaga reached Dakra via McCluskieganj in the evening where the delegation held a meeting with CCl management. Notably CCl owned mines are believed to the biggest cause behind the effluents coming into the Damodar.
“Our aim is to bring all the stakeholders on the table and generate awareness about their contribution to the pollution of the river. There are number of coal mines and washeries such as Magadh, Amrapali etc and industries along the river which are making life hell. The Government as well as civil society has to come together to the cause,” added Roy.
The effort has also brought out some results in the past as the Ministry of Coal had, sometime back, instructed all the coal mining PSUs to adhere to the set guidelines and restrict their polluting activities. Nevertheless improvement in their way of functioning is yet to be seen.
“lots of works are still need to be done. The mahotsava would work in that direction itself. Unless the industries and mines are not tackled with, this entire effort would be futile. We would try to sit with all such effluent generators so that the past glory of the Damodar can be restored with it,” said he.
Having catchment area of 107002 kms in Jharkhand the river also flows 283 km with 23102 km of catchment area in neighbouring West Bengal before amalgamating into Ganga near Kolkata.