Thousands congregate in Haridwar to rally for rivers

HARIDWAR: The mood was upbeat on Sunday morning at the VIP ghat as close to 2,000 people, including Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat, yoga guru Swami Ramdev and his associate Acharya Balkrishna as well as Swami Chidanand Saraswati, head of Rishikesh's largest ashram Parmarth Niketan, turned up on the banks of the Ganga to express support for Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's 'Rally For Rivers' — a drive to generate awareness about the need to save the country's rivers.

While CM Rawat assured the support of the Uttarakhand government for the endeavour, Ramdev announced that his organisation Patanjali Ayurved would adopt a stretch of land between 20 and 50km-long and plant one crore saplings. "We will ensure that 1 lakh saplings are planted in the next few days itself and also ensure that over a crore of our followers on social media give a missed call on 80009 80009 to support Sadhguru's cause," the yoga guru said.

The 'Rally for Rivers' campaign arrived in Haridwar on Sunday on its 29th day, after covering 14 states and a distance of 9,100km, and is set to conclude in Delhi on Monday.

"You and I will come and go but the rivers which have been flowing for a million years will remain. Today, the major rivers in the country need urgent medical attention," Sadhguru said. Providing the example of Bengaluru, he said, "Fifty years ago, Bengaluru had three rivers and over 1,000 lakes but at present the rivers have disappeared and the number of lakes has come down to just 81. Out of these 81, 40 are polluted with chemical waste."

Peppering his address with facts and figures, Sadhguru told the audience that out of 800 streams and tributaries of the Ganga, 470 have become seasonal and flow for only four months a year, which has led to a 44% reduction of water in the river. "In the Ganga basin — the largest river basin in country — people have removed 94% green cover in the last 50 years," he pointed out.

Speaking about an action plan to salvage the situation, Sadhguru said, "A time has come when we do not have to approach this problem emotionally or politically but scientifically and strategically and it is for this purpose that the rally was started. Earlier, the Centre could never get all states together for a river revival policy as they were ruled by different parties.

But today, I am proud to say that India has come together for the cause of the rivers. Every party is speaking in one voice."

"Till now close to 12 crore people have extended support to our campaign... I intend to take the number to 60 crore."

For a permanent solution, he added that the country needs to have a policy under which people treat rivers as a national treasure.