The Hindu : National : Bahuguna opposes interlinking of rivers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 18, 2005

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National

Bahuguna opposes interlinking of rivers

Principal Correspondent

"Create living water not dead water"

COIMBATORE: Environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna said here on Monday that he was opposed to interlinking rivers in the Indian peninsula.

"Linking of rivers is foolishness. It is a symbol of the haughtiness of human beings. They think they are the masters of everything," he told presspersons at Avinashilingam Deemed University, delivering a lecture on conservation of natural resources.

Explaining the importance of tree planting in water conservation and preserving life forms in flowing water, he noted, "A dam is a temporary solution. The life of a dam is limited. We must create living water not dead water."

He noted that tree felling for commercial purposes had halted in Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal with the cooperation of local people - especially women - who had realised the need to be vigilant against destruction of natural resources. Conservation could be accomplished only through people's action and could not be carried out by the Government alone.

Observing that the inflow of clean water into the Ganges had dropped to half the level compared to the situation in 1959, he said the river could eventually die if there were no conservation efforts to preserve it. Planting trees in large numbers was the only solution, because trees provided food, fodder and fuel.

In his address to the university students, Mr. Bahuguna underscored Gandhiji's words that Nature had "enough for everyone's need but not enough for everyone's greed". People had forgotten to ask themselves what their needs ought to be and did not seem to worry about how their needs were being fulfilled even at the cost of environmental degradation.

"Men have the power of violence; women have the power of ahimsa," he said, urging that women be given more responsibility to change society. "Problems come from our hearts. Till we change our hearts we cannot accomplish anything," he said, stating that the three great problems of the future were likely to be pollution, water scarcity and poverty.

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