Holistically Addressing the Pollution of Indian Holy Rivers
A Delhi resident gathers plastic bags from the polluted Yamuna River.
As I read Laurence Wylie, I am reminded of the perennial dilemma of Delhi’s Yamuna River’s. In Village in the Vaucluse, Wylie shows the futility of teaching moral lessons that conflict with regional customs and practices. For instance, children in the narrative are taught to be “the friends and protectors of the little birds.” However, in that region, a favorite food is roasted little birds and a favorite boast is eating 50-60 little birds in one go. Simply put, lessons that contradict local customs are a waste of time.
I find a similar, fundamental contradiction inherent in Delhi’s Yamuna River clean-up. There is no denying that the flourishing river of forty years ago is more like a dirty “nallah,” or sewer, nowadays. That said, I do not subscribe to any of the political mud-slinging that tries to lay blame for this. The deterioration has been a long term, multi-source problem and no one party–political or religious, individual or group, industrial or residential–can be held entirely responsible for it.
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At some point in the time, the “holy river” Yamuna came to be treated as a sewer.
Delhi’s population increased from 2.6 million in 1961 to 14 million in 2001 and a city that knew not what to do with the increasing waste generated just flushed it into the holy river. Industrial waste was indiscriminately dumped into the river, and not only by industry in Delhi. The states of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Haryana, through which the Yamuna makes its journey, further added to the pollution.
In the post-1992 era, after Delhi was labelled the fourth most polluted city (in terms of air pollution), massive attention came to be directed to the environment. Water pollution received due attention as well. Finally, industrial sources saw serious regulation. Despite this, industrial and residential disposal into the river continues. Yet, this is not what is most troubling. Similarly to Wylie’s book, with the Yamuna River, environmental lessons contradict religious customs, making progress difficult.
Unaddressed religious beliefs in India render the problem practically impossible to tackle by regulation alone.
The fundamental dilemma, I think, arises from the “holiness” of the river. In Hinduism, rivers are considered all-purifying. Ashes of the dead are handed over to the rivers as part of a person’s final rites. A dip in a holy river–after all, the Yamuna is a tributary of the sacred Ganges–washes one off of one’s paaps, or bad deeds. Holy waters are also considered the final repository of all pooja-samagri, or religious materials. The immersion of Ganesh and Durga idols, not only the small ones from households but also the numerous, large ones, (the source of much environmental hue and cry) is a practice subscribing to such ideas.
The Delhi High Court has ordered special enclosures built for soaking potentially toxic religious idols. In theory, enclosures would capture toxins for removal. Whereas fear of fines has often led Delhiites to follow dictates, these enclosures pose an inherent dilemma. The river is holy because it carries the matter with it great distances and unknown ends. In contrast, the enclosures hold the materials where they are dumped. They confine the material and curtail the imagination, making it hard to visualize a holy end for all immersed. Most of the time, the matter is not immersed in holy water at all; one can see it lying on a dead, dry bank instead of flowing away on the boisterous river that the Yamuna used to be some decades ago. Moreover, the usual practice was to scatter the religious material into the river and let its flow take care of the rest. Now, the religious items are thrown into the river in plastic bags, adding to pollution woes.
I am of the view that much serious thought needs to be devoted to this dilemma. A holistic solution to Yamuna’s pollution problem is needed to tackle this contradiction with fundamental beliefs of the people.
Photo Source: (Top) Koshyk via Flickr, under a Creative Commons lisence; (above) Google maps.
An important issue; is very well discussed!