A river’s got rights and should be given respect

We claim to worship rivers, but in practice we abuse them. The evidence is all around us. River after river has been turned into a drain — a receptacle for sewage and industrial wastes. Evolved societies treat their rivers with care. In the past Indian rivers got respect. They were the centrepieces around which life revolved. Stepwells, canals, tanks, ponds and aquifers connected rivers with the fabric of everyday life. Rivers had their identities and commanded their spaces. It was their right to flow as nature had devised.

Reviving the Yamuna has been a project undertaken by successive governments at great financial cost but with little success. Where has the money gone, one might ask. The present BJP government is said to be interested in developing parks and boulevards along the Yamuna’s banks. While some investment in technology in the form of sewage treatment plants and so on would reduce wastes entering the river, the idea that cementing up its floodplains will pretty up the Yamuna is ill-conceived.

What is needed is an ecological revival of the Yamuna. Venkatesh Dutta suggests eight ways in which that is possible. Its flow needs to be augmented so that the Yamuna has enough water to regenerate itself and likewise it should be left free to occupy its natural spaces.

Our interview of the month with N. Purnachandra Rao, a seismologist of high standing, is meant to create awareness of the kind of development being pursued in the mountain states. Dr Rao tells us that scientists know there will be a major earthquake in the Himalayan region. The tectonic shifts taking place deep within the earth are unavoidable. But the construction activity and road-building taking place can certainly be tempered. The carrying capacity of hill towns and cities has been exceeded and invites disaster on a large scale. Fresh thinking is needed. An opportunity also presents itself to retrofit buildings and prepare for a disaster.

Even as Zohran Mamdani makes news from New York, we should spare a thought for Indian municipal administrations and the lowly status of mayors here. Indian cities are a crumbling mess. Fixing them will become possible when there are local solutions and accountability. You could add better expertise for the many complexities involved in urban systems. Our reportage on cities over the years has been on upscaling municipal governance. In this issue read Sanjaya Baru on missing mayors. Also read Shyam Bhatia on a fundraiser for the British Museum in London which drew many high-profile Indians despite the controversies over many of the museum’s artefacts. Meghna Uniyal’s column, Citizens in Court, shows how difficult it is to get a polluting drain fixed in Noida and how complicated litigation can become for the citizen.