Ganga Pollution

kanpurghost
R o b b y S h a r m a
865, Block-B,Panki Kanpur-208020
Uttar Pradesh. INDIA
Freelance Research Scholar
Ph:09235844258; 09415438326
Town & Country Planning Problems Email.sharmarobby@hotmail.com
To
Mr Manmohan Singh 15-01-2007
Prime Minister of India
New Delhi.

Respected Prime Minister.
The Government has been trying to address the problem of River Pollution for the last many years & has been claiming to have spent billions of Rupees but to no avail. I am giving below a few suggestions which will go a long way in addressing this problem.

River Pollution, Problems & Solutions. A Case Study in Uttar Pradesh
Beginning:- Sanatan Dharma (Hindu Religion) & Ceremonial Protection of
Nature & all living Creatures .
1. Let us start at the beginning, in India as it is now & in a vast area, presently, not included in India , Sanatan Dharma was a way of Life millenniums ago, with Scientific achievement of such a high order, which is yet to be achieved by the present world. The Religious Texts, comprised of Scientific theories, History, Philosophy, Medicine (Ayurveda), Astrology & the concept of Karma. A Teacher was supposed to be an expert in all these fields, he was known as The Brahmin, who acted as a priest, Philosopher, spiritual Guru Guide & an expert Astrologer. He was supposed to be a Man of few personal needs.
2. Sanatan Dharma(Hindu Thought) is basically based on the concept of peaceful coexistence with Nature & all living & so called non living beings. to which end, its followers strived & in this the Teacher was supposed to play a very big part. It is the Hindu thought that every creation of nature has a life of some kind, even the rivers, the Seas, the Mountains & the Earth. It was towards the protection & preservation of all forms of life that Sanathan Dharma strived. Since it was necessary to eat to survive& seeing that plant life was in abundance & could be sowed & reaped by Human labor, it was decided that the endeavor should be to eat Vegetation, Grain, fruits & other such product of Plants & Trees as the same were a form of life which never left their place & remained rooted to one place. All other Animals, Birds, Fish, Creepers were to be protected, as far as possible, from harm by humans, as also the Trees, The Rivers , the Seas, the Mountains & to take as little from nature as possible. The natural food habits of animals were not to be interfered. To this end the teacher worked, knowing fully well that such a Task could not be achieved without the active participation of the people.
3. Thus was born the Theory of Ceremonial protection of Nature. The Teacher used his knowledge of Religion & History & Astrology to achieve this end, thus on being approached for astrological advice, he advised them to mitigate the evil vibrations of Planets, for this purpose, people were asked to feed the fish, feed the Cow, feed the Dogs, feed the Ants, feed the Birds, feed the Elephants, feed the Monkeys. Women were advised to clean certain trees, water them & generally care for the Trees, even tie strings on them, to make them, their brothers, fathers etc & then ask boons from them for the long life of their Husbands, to seek boon of progeny etc even now Vat (the Banyan Tree) Savitri Vrat etc are observed by women, Akshaya Tritiya day is celebrated by planting of Aonla Trees,many other ceremonies involving the participation of trees are observed. It is generally believed that to mitigate the evil effects of certain Planets, one should pray before the Tree, connected to that particular Planet, sit under it & give alms in charity. Gope Ashtmi is celebrated in which the family Cow is Washed & Cleaned & Fed & Garlanded, decorated, clothed on its back, small Bells are hung on its neck, it is proudly displayed by many in the village, in a spirit of competition. There are hundreds of such ceremonies involving the caring of animals. Other species were protected by associating them with Gods & Goddesses as their Vehicle as the Lion of Goddess Durga, Garuda (the Eagle) of Lord Vishnu, Eravat the Elephant of Indra, The Swan of Goddess Saraswati, the Mouse of Ganesha, the Snake is held in reverence & so on & so on Nandi the Bullock is the eternal Companion of Lord Shiva. Thus as then & even now, the followers of Hindu dharma, would not kill even a House hold Lizard or a Cat as it is thought that this will mean that they will have to get a golden one made & immerse it in the Ganga to mitigate the sin of the killing.
4. All these ceremonies, the feeding of the Ants, the Fish & the Cow & caring for the Trees, may not have resulted in the achievement of any material gain, it may not have mitigated any evil vibrations of planets, nor begot any progeny to the women, nor lengthened the lives of their husbands, but it ensured the Protection & preservation of nature, it achieved the object of peoples participation in safeguarding the environment & all things natural. It also gave at least mental peace to those who participated & did no harm at all to them & even their sorrow was turned in to positive thoughts & creative action. It would have been impossible for the Teacher to get the people to feed the fish, the ants, the Monkeys…nor could he get the women of the village, to, go & care for some Banyan , Neem or Pepul Tree in some far away corner or vicinity of the village, if he did not accord the color of religion & ceremony to it. Thus the concept of Ceremonial protection of Nature worked wonderfully for the protection & Preservation of the Environment & all things natural. Such was the sublime thought that people used to beg for forgiveness from the Trees before cutting their branches for their meager needs, the Rivers were Requested for way before crossing them, even the Mountains, the Seas & the Forests were revered & held in very high esteem. There is the story of the King who gave equivalent weight of his own flesh to secure the release of a bird from the clutches of the Hunter. Thus for a very long time things were wonderful regarding the environment, till greed & circumstances took over, but even now the people in India are highly sensitized towards the protection of Nature, Rivers & Trees In particular, Pepul, Banyan, Neem & many other Trees are revered , Tulsi tree is grown & worshipped in every Hindu Household, The Neem tree is treated as a Village Doctor & none of the medications made from it ever require its cutting, in fact it may be impossible to find a hindu & ask him to cut some of these trees, even a fallen pepul tree will remain safe, where it has fallen because the hindus will not cut its branches even for fuel. There was the CHIPKO movement in India, a few years ago, in which the people hugged the Trees to prevent their cutting. All this has been narrated only to submit that people’s participation regarding the protection & preservation of the Environment , the Trees, the Rivers, even the Seas & the Mountains is already there in India, to such a high degree which may be impossible to imagine. Even today The Vow of the Ganga is the biggest & most sacred of all vows in the villages of the Ganges plain.
5. Urban Growth synonymous with pollution & destruction of environment. The biggest polluter of the Environment, the Rivers, & he ground water are large scale planned, human habitations, Industrial Estates etc. The larger & more Concentrated, the Human habitations, the greater the pollution. In the State of Uttar Pradesh, hundreds of highly populated urban areas are situated on the banks of the Rivers, as also hundreds of Industrial Estates & all of them are very poorly planned, discharging Billions of liters of Industrial & Sewage effluents in to these rivers, poisoning their waters, at the same time little care has been taken for growing or maintaining of Green Cover in the Cities, with the result that most of the inhabitants are living in a highly polluted atmosphere & at the same time are denied even the basic necessity of safe drinking water. All the legislations enacted for the prevention of pollution of Rivers, the Environment & for the healthy growth of the Cities have miserably failed, due to the high level of corruption prevailing in the implementing agencies & Authorities.
6. Kanpur, the most polluted,(City of India), the dirtiest, the biggest , the most populated, city of Uttar Pradesh:- Over the years Kanpur has become the most polluted City of India and as per a NASA report in 2006 it has become the most polluted in the World. The River Ganga during the course of its journey through Uttar Pradesh becomes increasingly polluted as it flows & the worst pollutant is the City of Kanpur, the reasons are not far to seek. Mostly it is because of the lack of understanding of & in fact lack of sensitivity of the various Authorities & most of all the foolishness of the Town Planning Authorities of the Cities and particularly of The Chief Town & Country Planning office of Uttar Pradesh who was entrusted the task of making of Master Plans of the Cities of Uttar Pradesh in the Sixties & even now.
It is not for the first time that concerns are being raised about the Pollution of Rivers & particularly Ganga. Under the British , the Town Planning Laws had ample provisions for preventing pollution of Rivers & other Water bodies The United Provinces Municipality Act-1916 became operative in U.P. as well as the City of kanpur, The United Provinces Town Improvement Act –1919 was simultaneously operative in some areas of the City.
7. In order to counter balance the densely populated, native quarters & the highly industrialized area due to many mills, Tanneries, Riverside power house, in the area of the Civil lines in Kanpur, & to prevent any further pollution to the river Ganga,The Cawnpore Improvement Trust planned for & executed the Schemes of allotting Large Plots of lands to the affluent sections of society in the Civil Lines area & later on in New Civil lines area of Kanpur, starting from the banks of the River Ganga & the underlined idea & main features of the scheme was :-
(i) To provide for huge open spaces in these bungalows & thus provide for the ventilation & ground water charging of the area as well as adjoining areas and create a buffer zone of low density & heavy green cover, between the highly polluting Industrial area & adjoining residential areas at private cost, because if they were to provide for Public Open spaces then the cost of such open spaces would have to be added to the schemes & thereby the burden would have come upon the other small residential plots of the adjoining native area, which would then have gone out of reach of the buying capacity of applicants of these plots.
(ii) To prevent the mushrooming of densely populated native quarters on the banks of the River Ganga, which would have interfered in the natural flow of rain waters in the Ganga, & at the same time, thousands of more people living in close vicinity of the river would have added to the pollution of the river.
(iii) Thus huge plots, some of them in acres were allotted to the affluent citizens, who were allowed to only construct a single storey bungalow along with a few servant quarters as per the Rules regarding the erection of buildings in Civil lines area, not more than one third of the plot area could be covered, initially as can be perused , from The Bye-Laws regulating The Erection, Re erection or Alteration of Buildings In The Kanpur Municipality: (Kanpur Municipality Byelaws) on page 575, “no plot in Civil lines could be of less than ¾ acres”. Present status, hundreds of Residential & Commercial Complexes have come up on these Open Spaces as the same have been sub divided & sold off by the owners, who have been allowed to do so by the present Town Planning Authories in utter disregard to the intention of the lease, i.e to keep the land on the Banks of the Ganga, free from large scale constructions in order to ensure the natural flow of Rain water in it.
8. That later on in order to control & prevent the haphazard growth on the outskirts of the City of Kanpur, an area to which the Municipality Act & the Town Improvement Acts did not apply, & keeping in view the special status of Cawnpore as the biggest industrial Town at that time, a special Act, namely “Cawnpore Urban Area Development Act-1945, Act No. VI of 1945 was enacted & in the beginning itself, the Area of Kanpur Development Board, enacted under the said Act, extended to the area, administered at that time by the Kanpur Municipal Board and to an area within 10 miles radius of the general Post office and South of the River Ganga………..excluding the area of Cantonment Board.
9. It is not for the first time now that concern is being raised for the pollution to the river Ganga, in fact as early as early twentieth century, The British were quite disturbed by the pollution to the City in general & River Ganga in particular caused by the industries established by them. Kanpur Municipality in the earlier part of the twentieth century was competent enough to plan for the prevention of pollution to the River Ganga & it would not be out of context to mention here that the Kanpur Municipality’s working at that time was even better organized than the working of the present day State Government. The following Bye-Laws, Regulations of Kanpur Municipality are worthwhile noticing, some of these public welfare Regulations, were also enacted during a short period of time after the British left, by the Town Planning Officers, who were trained by the British for this job, till such time as they were shunted out by the new dispensation or retired. :- Page-153:-BYE-LAWS FOR STORING HIDES, HORNS, OR SKINS AND FOR TANNING IN THE KANPUR MUNICIPALITY (CONFIRMED ON 28-12-1918) .SALIENT POINTS—CLAUSE-3:-No dischrge of foul water or refuse …in to the river Ganga or into any reservoir of water intended for bathing or drinking. Very exhaustive other clauses for sanitary care. Present Status:- Hundreds of Tanneries freely discharging their poisonous effluents directly in to Ganga, in fact Nagar Mahapalika themselves established the Tanneries Complex on the bank of Ganga in violation of Eastern Green Belt Scheme No.39 framed by Cawnpore Development Board in 1946, during British period. There was even in the earlier part of the 20th century, in Kanpur Municipality, under the British, a Committee known as GANGA JAL SUDHAR COMMITTEE. (Page-286, (12th November 1925, earlier, known as River Pollution Prevention Committee.), salient points—To suggest ways & means of preventing pollution of Ganga, & to make arrangements for disposal or removal of the dead bodies and Carcasses from the Ganga or its banks. Present status :- No Government Authority bothers about it although it is the Obligatory Duty of The Nagar Nigam(Municipal Corporation),Section-114 of U.P.Municipal Corporation Act-1959 :-Obligatory duties of the Corporation, Clause (xx)—…….’the disposal of unclaimed bodies, or aiding within its means any arrangement made with the same objects by any other institution’ for this purpose, reference may be made to the earlier Bye Law in this respect, refer, (Kanpur Municipality Byelaws),Page-604, Bye-Law Regarding Burial & Burning Ground, framed by Kanpur Municipality,Salient points-Exhaustive…Resolution No.7(b)..dated..20 January-1922…Free supply of wood on the recommendation of the Board & Police Officers. Now it is only some organizations like Eco friends, who are voluntarily doing this work & Police is freely dumping all unclaimed bodies in the river Ganga.
10. Several other Bye-Laws, directly working for the control & prevention of pollution & Environment were made such as Page- 581, (Kanpur Municipality Byelaws), BYE-LAWS TO CONTROL THE CONSTRUCTION OF NEW FACTORY BUILDINGS…..which vide clause-17, G.O.dated11-4-1942 provided that no new Factory shall be sanctioned unless it is in the area reserved by Improvement trust, for Factories.. Present status:- Factories are running in Kanpur, everywhere, in residential areas, in graveyards, on the footpaths, on the Roads, National Highways passing through the City, in Parks, in forests, in commercial areas ,while half the area reserved for Industrial Use in The Kanpur Master Plan, enforced in 1970, is lying un used. All this has been allowed to happen by the Corrupt officers & officials Of Kanpur Development Authority.
11. That due to the concerns of the British regarding prevention of further Pollution of the Ganga, The Cawnpore Development Board, with the view to reserve the Lands on the Banks of the Ganga, For Green Belt purposes, for future Expansion of the City acting under Section-49 , Town Expansion Scheme of Cawnpore Urban Area Development Act-1945, prepared Brick Field cum Dairy and Poultry Farm and Orchard Green Belt Scheme No.38, Western Green Belt Scheme & The Eastern Green Belt Scheme No.39, They planned for extension of the City only towards the South, i.e. away from the Ganga, Similarly Panki Pandu Ganga Scheme No.40 was also framed by them.
12. It is a matter of shame that no sooner had the British left, the new Incumbents, The Indian Bureaucrats & Politicians, made certain contrary changes in these schemes, without re notifying as was mandatory under the Law but even then the Green Belt Character of the Scheme No’s 38, 39 & to certain extent of Scheme No.40, remained intact.
13. Reference is now being made to The Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporation
Act-1959, by enactment of U.P. Nagar mahapalika ( now known as Nagar Nigam) Act-1959, although repealed the aforesaid Acts U.P. Town improvement act 1919 and Cawnpore Urban area development act 1945 yet the developed and sanctioned schemes within the 1919 and 1945 acts were left untouched as per the provision of section 383 sub section (3) of the U.P. Municipal Corporation Act which read as here under :-
“ Provided that nothing in this section shall apply to the improvement schemes already sanctioned under the U.P. Town improvement act 1919 and the Cawnpore Urban area development act 1945” under this section 383 a provision for master plan has been laid for Corporation limits.” The underlined idea being to save the Schemes made in a planned manner under these acts & to confine the act of making of the Master Plan, to framing of new Schemes in undeveloped areas & to plan for rebuilding of old unsanitary & unhygienic & haphazardly built areas of the City.which had till then been neglected & not been improved under the provisions of the previous Acts. However due to vested interests of certain Government Authorities,& particularly the foolishness of the Chief Town & Country Planning Department of Uttar Pradesh, the provisions of Section 383(3) of the Nagar Nigam Act-1959 were ignored & Illegal & contrary & Highly polluting Schemes replaced the so carefully thought of & Legally sanctioned Green Belt Schemes No’s 38, 39 & 40 framed under the 1945 Act. Although the Land was acquired for the original sanctioned green Belt Schemes in Scheme No.38 & 39 in Kanpur. The result is that hundreds of highly polluting Tanneries, came up in the Eastern Green Belt Scheme No.39 area, forcing the Ganga to leave the Banks of Kanpur from the early fifties/sixties. Similarly thousands of Residential buildings & other uses were made of Western Green Belt Scheme No.38, even the Kanpur University which was to be established in the South of Kanpur, prevailed upon the Planning authorities to get allotted several hundred acres of Land in The Scheme No.38, Not a Inch of Land was Allotted for the Planned use of Orchards, Poultry farms, Dairy Farms etc & instead of one or two dwelling units in the large Bungalows on bank of River, there are hundred times more dwelling units as the Bungalow owners have been allowed to partition & sell of the large plots against the legal provisions by the Development Authority. Similar foolishness must have been done by the Chief Town & Country Planning department when they made Master Plans for other Cities of Uttar Pradesh with the result that the River Ganga got polluted more & more because growth of Cities towards the River was not contained.
14. Summing Up:- Pollution of River Ganga & Other Rivers:- In
the Past(even during Mugal raj), as also presently (in rural areas) The High Grounds on the Banks of the Rivers were under extensive plantation of ORCHARDS & thus these Lands were & are still known as Bangar .These Orchards have been damaged extensively due to extension of Cities towards the Rivers & the consequential Acquisition of these lands & massive cutting down & destruction of the Orchards, causing heavy damage to the Environment. The low lands in River i.e. known as Kachar Lands were & are used for shifting cultivation of Vegetables, Melons & the Like, ownership of these lands is highly doubtful, as in the case of Kanpur, where when the Ganga shifted towards Bithoor, thousands of acres of land left by Ganga , on the side of Kanpur, but controlled by District Magistrate Unnao, were grabbed in league with Revenue officials by the Land mafias, a trend which is going on every where as the Rivers Flood & recede now & then, Although we address the Rivers as Mother yet at every opportunity we rob her of her property i.e. her Land No records of the actual lands of the rivers is available. The Maps of these rivers were prepared under the British by Survey of India & it may be possible to obtain them & set a cut off date for demarcating the boundaries of the Lands of the rivers.. Every body has been talking about the amount spent by the Government on pollution control measures to save the rivers, this is the biggest lie & in reality the Governments have been robbing these Rivers of their property.
REMEDY:-
1. In addition to the on going efforts to control the flow of Sewerage & Industrial effluents & other pollutants in the Rivers, The Government of India should immediately make suitable Legislation with reference to the entry at S.No.56 in the Seventh Schedule, Union List & immediately make suitable Legislation with regard to the Ganga & other Inter-State Rivers & in it , firstly the Land of the River should be firstly clearly demarcated, taking in to account its natural spread & the same should be entered in to the Revenue Records, in the name of the Rivers (some cut off date of say 1947 should be taken as the base).
2. A Corridor of five Kilometers width should be declared on both sides of the River & declared as River Corridor & planted with Orchards & other Trees or put to such other use as would be most helpful for the health of the River. In case Orchard or tree Plantation is chosen for implementation, it should be done with the active participation of the owners of the Lands there in, The Change of Use of agricultural lands to other uses in this Corridor should be strictly forbidden & its status be maintained as River Corridor/Agricultural Lands. The Use of Organic/Chemical Fertilizers & Pesticides in this Corridor Zone should be strictly forbidden (including for the crop of water melon etc). Land of those owners as are reluctant to participate, in the Corridor Projects, should be acquired over the years by Using all the Money generated by sale of fishing rights in the Rivers, Boat plying License fee (auction of Nauka ghat rights) & by Reserving for the purpose of the Development & welfare of the River, all Revenue generated by the sale of the property of the river, like river minerals, Boulders, Sand etc by way of auction. The funds generated from sale of any such property of the river should not be utilized for any other purpose & declared to be the property of that river. The River will itself over the years pay for its cleaning.
The States may object, claiming owner ship rights to these minerals & Fish, they should be over ruled in the interest of the Environment & Constitutional amendment if required should be done or in the alternative, the Land acquired should be treated as property of that State, but the status of the River Corridor should remain inviolable.
3. The Legislation should ban the extension or expansion of the Cities, situated on the Banks or in close vicinity to the Rivers, towards the River, even if such expansion is confined to area outside this corridor, they should be free to plan their extension/ expansion towards the other sides, i.e away from the Rivers but never to wards the River, because if Planned Human Habitations towards the rivers are not stopped immediately, the rivers will surely die. The Existing Master Plans of the Cities which may have proposals of Extension /Expansion towards the River should be reviewed & further Constructions stopped immediately. Village sites to be exempted for the bona fide residential needs of the villagers but change of Agricultural Lands to Industrial Use, towards the side of the River should be prohibited.
Talabs & the Water Table:- Thousands of Talabs have been
filled up & grabbed, in connivance with the Revenue officials . In other cases because Mud is no longer taken out of the Talabs because of conversion of mud houses in to brick houses, which do not require mud plastering, as also due to the decline of the trade of the earthen pottery making in the Villages & Cities, the Talabs get filled up with Silt & become useless in a very short time.
REMEDY:_
A:- Committees with retired District Judge Level Judicial Officer,
heading them be made & thorough Scrutiny of Revenue Records be done, with the Settlements records as the basis, thereafter, the Permanent Revenue records prepared at the time of Zamindari abolition & the Land Use of these Talabs be fixed with regard to these two records only & any subsequent changes to these be ignored, mutation if any on any subsequent stage be cancelled , all contrary constructions be demolished, Talab be restored. Fishing rights be given (preferably to Cooperatives of fishermen), with the rider that the lessee shall be responsible to maintain the depth of the Talab at a fixed level & arrange for their de silting, from time to time, the de silting expenses be adjusted & subtracted from the License fee.
B:- New Talabs should at once be dug in sufficient numbers after proper Survey & should be given on license to Co Operative Fishing Societies with the rider of maintaining their depths & de silting them from time to time. All funds generated be deposited in a fund created for preservation of water bodies & not to be diverted for any other purpose.
C:- On going constructions on the Lands of the Talabs be immediately stopped.
D. Fruit bearing & Timber Trees, should be planted on their banks, taking care not to obstruct the flow of rain water in them, in case of areas, where they can not be filled with rain water, as in Cities, arrangement of Tube wells for the purpose be made. The License of plucking & sale of fruits of these be given to the needy & the funds should be deposited in the fund created for preservation of water bodies. In giving of licenses, first preference should be given to the poor widows as may be present in the area, in which case, special concession should be given.
The Widow pension Schemes be associated with the tree planting activities & as against the paltry amount of Rs.100 to Rs.125, ($-2 to 3), as is given to the poor widows after much humiliation, they should be entrusted with the task of bringing up these trees, watering them, caring for them, guarding them for at least ten years, & for this purpose, they should be paid Rs.100 per month, minimum, per tree & should be allotted at least ten trees each , the plants to be planted by the Forest officers, the tree guards can be sponsored by big Companies like Pepsi, Coca Cola & the like or big organizations like Lions Club, Rotary club etc.
Thanking You
Yours Sincerely


Robby Sharma
865, Block-B, Panki Kanpur-208020,