Tag: Environment

  • Rights of Rivers

    Rights of Rivers

    Today is 14th March and since 1997, it is observed and celebrated as an International Day of Action for Rivers. Participants from 20 countries attending the first International Meeting of People Affected by Dams, decided on this date to unite to conserve and protect rivers, other water bodies and watersheds against destruction. This year, we are celebrating this day with the theme “Rights of Rivers”. Today when we are equipped with cutting edge technology and engineering, we think we can command the forces of nature to do our bidding. We have encroached too much on nature and ignored their rights. Rights they have because of the might of beastly forces they possess. This perceived supremacy over nature has blinded us and we keep encroaching more and more upon the Rights of Rivers and streams. However, the culture of the Indian subcontinent was not like this before.

    Described as सुजलां सुफलां in our national song वंदे मातरम् by Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay, India is the Land of Plenty. Northern Himalayin perennial rivers like Ganga, Sindhu and Yamuna, uniquely west bound river Narmada; Godavari and Krishna as lifelines of Maharashtra and Telangana; Kaveri of Karnataka and Andhra along with colossal Brahmaputra have given this quality to this subcontinent. Over the thousands of years, these mighty rivers gave birth to many civilizations along their banks with the constant flow of life between their origin and mouth. We consider our rivers as Goddesses and worship them every evening with a pomp in many cities. Ganga Aarti from Varanasi and Prayag is a very famous event.
    Right from the Sindhu Civilization of Harappa, Mohenjodaro and hundreds of other settlements to today’s modern cities of India, we are totally dependent on this constant flow of life. With the progress and development of civilization, humans started bending the forces of nature to their convenience. It curbed the Rights of Rivers. We dammed the constant flow of life

    What are the Rights of Rivers?

    I believe there are two very basic rights which rivers have carved themselves, in literal and figurative sense.
    First is to “flow continuously” from its origin in hills to the mouth to meet the sea and second is the “Right of Way” between the banks which it has carved itself by flowing for thousands of years.

    Settlements started to grow on the banks of rivers as they were a source of water for all human activities like agriculture and industries along with household consumption. Increased urban population leads to the surge in water demand. Cities started looking for surety of water supply. Many rivers in India are not perennial as they are solely dependent on monsoon for the water. We started constructing dams to solve this problem and assure the constant water supply. As of the beginning of 2021, India has over 5700 large dams across the country. There are many more small dams and barrages scattered all over the country.

    The flow of water in the rivers is almost zero as every city tries to hold almost all the water in the dams to cater to the ever increasing demand of the city. For example, Mutha River in Pune sadly now carries only sewage that is coming from the STPs of the city. Khadakwasla dam does not release any water in the river unless it is full in the monsoon days. As a result, there is no water flowing in the river. The natural ecological stability of the downstream region depends on flowing water in the river. Even The Krishna Basin Tribunal has ordered 6 cusecs of constant water flow in the river. However, the ground reality is a complete contrast to the order.

    Mula River. Photo Source – CDSA

    Giving the “Right of Way” is the right way

    Rivers and streams flow between the two banks which are carved by the river itself. Rivers undergo waxing and veining as seasons change throughout the year. This is another important Right which rivers have carved for themselves. During monsoon, with the heavy rainfall in upstream catchment areas, rivers do come out the banks and inundate the plains which are above the banks. We call this phenomenon “flood.” There are regulations in urban areas to deter the construction and occupation of the floodplains to avoid the loss of life and property if flood occurs. Flood zones are marked with probability analysis of possible inundations in case of high floods. These flood zones are no development zones. However, lawmakers considered the definition of the River and River Channel “no brainer” and did not formulate it when they created these rules and laws.

    These two things have created a loophole in development controls and Indian cities are witnessing a huge encroachment in the river and flood zones. Small streams are the feeder networks of the rivers. They are literally murdered by dumping debris into and constructing upon them. The chain of River ecosystems in its watersheds is broken with the loss of these streams. As a result, Indian cities are facing devastating effects of broken ecosystems. One part of the country faces urban flooding with short bursts of heavy rainfall. While there is a drought in the other parts of the country at the same time. The Mumbai floods of 26th July 2005 was the first alarming event from the chain and since then it is happening in one city or the other regularly. Surat, Chennai, Bangalore, Kedarnath (Uttarakhand), Kashmir. List goes on. Every monsoon, the list gets longer and longer.

    Honoring the Rights of Rivers

    To sustain human settlements and live a good life we should start respecting the rights of rivers. As a common citizen, we should stop polluting the rivers by our personal actions. We should create an awareness for banks of rivers and streams to be the sacrosanct Right of Way.

    Let us join our hands and think about the rivers as trustees tasked with taking care of them for our future generations and protecting Rights of Rivers.


    Adi’s Journal
    Feb 2021


    This post is part of Blogchatter’s CauseAChatter

  • Environment: What does that even mean?

    Environment: What does that even mean?

    What do we think when we hear, read or talk about the word “Environment”? The picture we paint of the environment is of lush green forests, clean and flowing rivers, hills and mountains free from plastic and other waste, pollution free oceans and clean air. However, we conveniently ignore that all parts of the earth are not supposed to be covered with lush green forests. Some might be barren with fine sand and scattered thorny shrubs, or vast grasslands without any sight of large trees for acres and acres. The landforms and the flora-fauna they support come in a variety of packages. These are governed by the geo-climatic conditions of the region. Let’s look at the components of the environment.

    Components of Environment

    Components

    Environment is a pretty large umbrella term. It comprises all the natural features which we can observe on the earth, under rivers and oceans and other water bodies, in the atmosphere surrounding the Earth. It also comes with some underground features like ground water, fossil fuels and other mineral deposits. But, this is an incomplete list of environmental components. We always tend to forget that humans are very much a component of this environment. Thankfully, the time of denial has passed. Now globally we are ready to at least recognize the adverse impacts of our actions which are leading to increased rates of global warming.

    Few steps are being taken to reduce these impacts. Some frameworks have been established to monitor or amend some wrong doings. The United Nations Development Programme has come up with 13 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). India is a signatory nation to SDGs. Similarly, State Governments have drafted policies and decided the goals to achieve.

    For urban areas in India, all the local governments have to prepare and table the annual Environmental Status Report (ESR) as per the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act.

    This report should act as the base for the city’s policy to take a step towards sustainability. But if we look at the reports, we can observe that the granularity of data and the scope of environmental indicators keep on varying from city to city. Very rarely we get any actionable suggestion or plan in these reports. Almost every city has ignored the data about one common parameter the Built Environment is ignored

    What is a Built Environment?

    Built Environment is a major component of urban areas. It covers all the buildings, amenities, services and infrastructure created to have a good quality of life in urban areas. ESR should be certainly prepared incorporating indicators about the built environment. Centre for Development Studies and Activities (CDSA), Pune has created a framework data ecosystem which enables the recording and analysis of the data on the indicators of the built environment in urban areas and strongly advocates the significance of the “Built” component of the Environment umbrella. One cannot ignore this component when the aim is to achieve Sustainability

    In many ways, the built environment is the manifestation of our good and bad practices. It represents unsustainable and polluting materials that might be used for construction but also natural, environmentally safe materials.

    CDSA has initiated a movement for public participation called Quantified Cities Movement. The movement engages us in observing and safeguarding urban quality of life. Movement works as a catalyst in spreading awareness about various aspects of quality of life and environment. Please do join the movement and understand our environment better and in a holistic way.


    This post is part of Blogchatter’s CauseAChatter

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    Adi’s Journal
    Feb 2021