By Sandeep Rawat

Matri Sadan ashram which, has been the flagbearer of agitations against hydropower projects in Garhwal Himalayas, has decided to resume its agitation post-Chamoli glacial breach tragedy.

From February 23, a seer of the Matri Sadan ashram will go on an agitation (which they call tapasya or acetic practice) demanding scrapping of all hydropower projects being constructed or in the pipeline on river Ganga and its sub tributaries in Uttarakhand.

Swami Shivanand Saraswati, a spiritual ideologue of the Matri Sadan ashram, on Sunday re-asserted the commitment of the ashram for the cause of holy Ganga and the ecology.

Citing the 2013 Kedarnath flash flood and the recent Rishiganga and Dhauliganga area glacier breach, Swami Shivanand linked the two disasters due to haphazard, unplanned construction of hydropower projects in the eco-sensitive Himalayan belt.

“Without scientific, environmental evaluation and impact assessment, dozens of hydropower projects have been built in the upper reaches of Garhwal on the Ganga and its adjacent tributaries. After 8 years, nature has again shown the ill effects of these hydro projects as well as rampant construction activities in the eco-sensitive zone,” said Swami Shivanand Saraswati

He further added that either he or any other seer will stage the silent mode of agitation from February 23 to draw attention to the negative bearing of these project activities on the environment.

Also read: Taliban chief Haibatullah Akhundzada killed in Pakistan ‘months ago’ – Reports

From February 23, a seer, who will be decided by next week, from the ashram will start an indefinite agitation on four demands.

The demands include the closure of all hydropower projects on Ganga, prohibition on stone crusher units within 5-kilometre periphery of Ganga river bed, total prohibition on quarrying from Raiwala till Bhogpur and formation of Ganga council to look into issues related to the sacred river.

Brahmachari Dayanand, a disciple of Matri Sadan, said that every seer associated with Matri Sadan is ready to opt for the agitation and give his life too for the cause of sacred Ganga.

This is not the first time when seers associated with Matri Sadan have started agitations for the cause of Ganga. In January last year, Uttarakhand police forcibly lifted 24-year-old Ganga activist Sadhvi Padmavati from Matri Sadan ashram premises in Haridwar where she had been on a fast unto death for 48 days.

In 2019, 22-year-old Brahamchari Atmabodhanand, hailing from Kerala, and a computer science graduate had undertaken a 194-days-long fast unto death for the same cause.

In 2018, Gyan Swarup Sanand, a former Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) professor, whose original name was Professor GD Agarwal, died in AIIMS Rishikesh on the 112th day of his hunger strike on October 11, 2018. After his demise, Sant Gopal Das had announced to carry forward the agitation.

However, within 10 hours of his announcement, a team of the district administration, along with doctors, reached Matri Sadan ashram and lifted the seer during the night on a stretcher and took him to AIIMS Rishikesh in an ambulance. Earlier on June 13, 2011, after 114 days of an indefinite fast unto death at Matri Sadan ashram on same demands, young Swami Nigmanand had died in suspicious circumstances.