Thursday, May 7, 2009

Environmental and Cultural Disaster in India

Environmental and Cultural Disaster in India
Destruction of the Ganga (Ganges) and the Vedic Culture

Information provided by Desh Bachao Ganga Bachao Andolan
(Save the Country, Save the Ganga Movement)

India is one of the oldest civilisations of the world that flourished along the Indus and the Ganga. This civilisation has given in abundance to the world heritage. Ganga, the site of the Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas, the mother medicine of the world AYURVEDA and other sciences, is being destroyed from its Himalayan source onwards. Around 40 Km down the Glacier, the forest is being destroyed to make another of the several dams. Uttarkashi, the holy city of the temples(located 118 Km down stream from the Glacier), is destroyed by putting the river of great cultural and social importance into a tunnel. In brief, the Ganga that flowed for thousands of years in this area is dry. Its entire fauna has dried out or eaten up. Contractors and local looters are plundering its stones and sand. All the Ashrams along its banks, where people from all over the world come to learn yoga, meditation, Ayurveda and other healing practices have become redundant without the energy of the Ganga with its timeless water (no bacteria or fungus attacks Ganga water when kept in a bottle even for hundred years) and beautiful music of its rapids in this area. All that is a thing of the past. Ganga is dried by the anti-nature, anti-human, anti-environment policy makers.




The dried Ganga near Uttarkashi




An ashram located of the (dried out) Ganga

The Past Dams
After independence, there were two major dams, which were built in the regions of upper Ganga. Maneri, the smaller dam is about 100 Km down stream from the Glacier. Tehri, probably the biggest environmental disaster in the world, is 170 Km down stream from the Ganga’s Glacier. These dams were started when India was very poor after independence and there was no power infrastructure in the country. We are financial better now and we have so many alternative sources of energy as compared to sixty years ago. The whole world has become conscious of preserving environment and we know the threat of global warming that can destroy the humanity. We should all join hands to save our earth and group together to force our governments to stop our environmental and cultural destruction.


Tehri Dam: one of the biggest environmental disaster in the world


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We request all the environmental organisations of the world to join hands with us for helping the poor people of the Himalayas and to save the world heritage.
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Please help us by writing letters directly to The Chief Justice of India, supremecourt@nic.in Supreme Court, New Delhi. Please send us a copy of that by e-mail. Please help us in any other way you can. All this will support our PIL (Public Interest Litigation). At present, this seems to be the only way to enliven the dry Ganga and to save the upper Himalayas from Destruction.



Plundering of the Ganga downstream from Uttarkashi

Ganga is no more flowing and there is looting going on at its dried place
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Joke of the Day

The present Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, in whose regime the Ganga is drained out, is talking of saving the Ganga’s glacier (Gomukh) from melting rapidly. He gave a statement in the press that this pilgrim season, he is going to limit the number of tourists visiting Ganga Glacier to reduce the glacier from melting.
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Ganga being thrown out from the Tunnel about 30 Km downstream from Uttarkashi


Dried out Ganga bed and bare Himalayas


Destruction of the Himalayas

Ganga that is ....

Ganga that was....

The above two picture are taken from nearly the same place. The picture with Ganga flowing was taken in April 2007.

Desh Bachao Ganga Bachao Andolan
(Save the Country, Save the Ganga Movement)


Founder Members:

Sursari Devi, Uttarakhand
Dr. Vinod Verma, Uttarakhanda, drvinodverma@dataone.in or ayurvedavv@gmail.com
Gita Nijhon, Uttarakhand
Professor Dharmanand Sharma, Chandigarh

Pranav Arya, Punjab

Mahendra Kulasreshtha, Hariyana

Jabbar Singh, Uttarakhand

Pawan Nautial, Uttarakhand

Dharmendra Kushwah, Uttarapradesh

Mohit Joshi, New Delhi

Rajesh Verma, Punjab

Our Postal Addresses:

Our Postal Addresses:

1. Dr. V. Verma, A-130, Sector 26, Noida 201301, India
2. Mrs Gita Nijhon, Dunda, Virpur, District Uttarkahsi, Uttarakhand, India.
3. Charaka School of Ayurveda, Village Astal, Tehsil Dunda, District Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand, India.