Mainstream WeeklyThe Banas River flows for over 500 km in water-scarce Rajasthan, fulfilling important ecological roles and meeting the needs of many people. The Bisalpur project has increased its reach further for meeting the drinking water needs of many more people in Ajmer. In its upper reach in South Rajasthan, in the Aravalli hills, this seasonal river has been sometimes referred to as Van ki Aas or hope of forests, a reminder of its important ecological role. The river, a tributary of the Chambal River, is closely associated with several mythological tales, which also reflect a recognition of its importance and of the need for keeping it clean and protected.
It is an indicator of the growing neglect of rivers that such an important river and its vicinity became a dumping place for many kinds of garbage and what is more, this happened closer to its source of origin in Khamnor town. If a river becomes so dirty and polluted in its upper stretch, then this has an adverse impact on the river for a considerable stretch downstream.
This situation was being watched with increasing concern by a group of youth of this town which included Suresh Lohar, Pravin, Kajal, Lalita, Rajat, Deepak, Hitesh and others. Kajal says, “It was really worrying to see that even diapers and sanitary napkins were being dumped in the river and its vicinity, along with all sorts of other garbage.”
Suresh Lohar, who emerged in a leadership role in this group of youth, said—I had been very influenced by the sacrifice which a scientist G.D. Aggarwal made for protecting the Ganga river when I had read about this earlier. Now I started thinking more about this. If an elderly and senior scientist could sacrifice his life for the cause of protecting the Ganga, then surely we younger people should do our bit for reducing pollution in a river flowing close to our home.”
This group formed a small organization called Sarva Hith (meaning welfare of all). True to the name they carried, they decided to take up as their first big initiative the cleaning up of the river which is related to the welfare of not just all people but of all forms of life. Social media was also used to draw attention to the need for cleaning up the river and to try to get more volunteers for the cleaning work.
Finally the cleaning work started with a lot of good intentions but also several difficulties. As many kinds of harmful garbage was being encountered, it was not easy to continue this work for a long time, particularly as most of the youth involved here including young boys and girls had no previous experience of such work. As students they had heard about such initiatives but had never previously participated in them. Nevertheless about 22 youth participated in this work on most days which continued for about 10 days. Thus over 100 sacks of garbage could be removed from the river and its vicinity.
This work could have an even wider impact because of a project for creating clean surroundings which was being implemented by a voluntary organization Seva Mandir in Khamnor. Seva Mandir appreciated and encouraged this work. Some of the volunteers from its various programs also participated later in the cleaning of the river and other water sources of the town and its surroundings.
The youth group also found more conducive conditions for continuing its work due to various initiatives of this wider project for creating a cleaner town. The volunteers from Sarva Hith have also been involved recently in campaigns for reducing polythene use as well as in tree planting work. They participated in Seva Mandir’s initiatives for arranging visits to various sites for good solid waste management in places like Indore, Dungarpur and Udaipur, thus opening up new possibilities and ideas for future work to them.
Hence Sarva Hith organization has got off to a very good start and it hopes to add more public interest efforts to its future initiatives. The efforts to keep the Banas river clean need to be extended to a wider area and it would be a good idea to follow-up the initial effort with more exploration regarding whether other garbage accumulation sites are emerging along the flow of the seasonal river in nearby areas. If such sites are detected, then an alert can be raised regarding this and perhaps more volunteers can be mobilized for clean-up work. There can be a wider mobilization and networking for this extending over a wider area for which Jan Hith can take the lead, helped by Seva Mandir. Hence a wider initiative for protecting the Banas river can emerge, particularly in its ecologically crucial upper reach, including preventing pollution and protecting forests, drawing inspiration also from mythological stories relating to this but at the same guided by a scientific approach.
(Author: Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children and Planet in Peril. His website is bharatdogra.in and his YouTube channel is Bharat Dogra Save Earth Campaign)