HUNDREDS of Krishna Bhakts return disappointed and
deeply frustrated each day from river Yamuna, when they can’t take a holy dip or
achman even on festivals, because of the filth and effluents, heaps of dirt and
dead bodies flowing down from cities upstream of
Agra.
Reduced to a pale, sickly nullah, the
glory and grandeur of Yamuna that attracted the Mughals to build some of the
finest monuments like the Taj and Etmauddaula along its banks, will never
return, lament the residents of the Yamuna Kinara
road.
While the younger folks have
generally stayed away from the stinking river which holds no charm for them,
people of the older generations do occasionally venture out to conduct
ritualistic pujas and baths. The dozen odd ghats along the river front which
once was the center of a thriving commercial activity and river culture have
disappeared without a trace, reducing the ten kilometer long river front to a
vast wasteland.
From Kailash temple to Dussehra Ghat
adjacent to the Taj, there were more than a score pucca ghats, some of red sand
stones others of marble. Behind the Red Fort there were pucca ghats with highly
decorative canopies for the royal females of the
Mughals.
Some ghats fell prey to man’s
indifference, others were razed to the ground by zealous bureaucrats at late
Sanjay Gandhi’s orders during the emergency to make way for a picturesque river
front like Mumbai’s Chowpati. But before that dream could materialize politics
took a U turn and Indira Gandhi was swept out of power in 1977
elections.
Today, the river of decadence is an
eyesore. Those who take the Yamuna Kinara road are often seen covering their
noses to keep away the foul odour of the stinking
mess.
Goswami Hari Mohan Shrotriya of the
Mathuradheesh temple laments “those were the days when the whole city of Agra
used to spend leisurely summer evenings on the river bank which had a long row
of temples, when children used to feed the tortoises and a whole lot of cultural
and religious activities used to be performed here. But now the people have
turned away and have even forgotten there’s a river in the
city.”
Hathi Ghat near the fort still
survives but the whole area has been rampaged by transport companies whose
vehicles are parked there. Nathi Lal of Katcheri Ghat warns: “if the ghats
disappear, the river culture, the annual melas and tamashas, the tairaki
(swimming contests, patangbazi and the mass bathing programmes on festivals
would vanish too.”
NGOs like the Yamuna Foundation for
Blue Water and Jan Abhiyan Samiti have been exerting pressure on the government
agencies to take up cleanliness drives, build pucca ghats and dredge out silt
from the river bed to hold back monsoon overflow, but so far there has been no
positive response. ENDS
When
thousands of devouts all along the river bank in
Agra took a
holy dip on Ganga
Dussehra Monday morning, they came out cursing and abusing the powers that be
for the stinking and polluted water in Yamuna.
Each day
hundreds of Krishna Bhakts in Vrindavan, Mathura and Agra return disappointed
and deeply frustrated from river Yamuna, when
they can’t take a holy dip or achman even on festivals, because of the filth and
effluents, heaps of dirt and dead bodies flowing down.
Reduced to a pale,
sickly nullah, the glory and grandeur of Yamunathat attracted the
Mughals to build some of the finest monuments like the Taj and Etmauddaula along
its banks, will never return, lament the residents of the Yamuna Kinara
road.
While the younger
folks have generally stayed away from the stinking river which holds no charm
for them, people of the older generations do occasionally venture out to conduct
ritualistic pujas and baths.
The
dozen odd ghats along
the river front which once was the center of a thriving commercial activity and
river culture have disappeared without a trace, reducing the ten kilometer long
river front to a vast wasteland.
From Kailash temple to
Dussehra Ghat adjacent to the Taj,
there were more than a score pucca ghats, some of red sand
stones others of marble. Behind the Red Fort there were
pucca ghats with highly decorative
canopies for the royal females of the Mughals.
Some ghats fell prey to man’s
indifference, others were razed to the ground by zealous bureaucrats at late
Sanjay Gandhi’s orders during the emergency to make way for a picturesque river
front like Mumbai’s Chowpati. But before that dream could materialize politics
took a U turn and Indira Gandhi was swept out of power in 1977
elections.
Today, the river of
decadence is an eyesore. Those who take theYamuna Kinara road are often
seen covering their noses to keep away the foul odour of the stinking
mess.
Goswami
Hari Mohan Shrotriya of the Mathuradheesh temple laments “those were the days
when the whole city of Agra used to spend leisurely summer evenings on the river
bank which had a long row of temples, when children used to feed the tortoises
and a whole lot of cultural and religious activities used to be performed here.
But now the people have turned away and have even forgotten there’s a river in
the city.”
Hathi Ghat near the fort still
survives but the whole area has been rampaged by transport companies whose
vehicles are parked there. Nathi Lal of Katcheri Ghat warns: “if
the ghats disappear, the river
culture, the annual melas and tamashas, the tairaki (swimming contests,
patangbazi and the mass bathing programmes on festivals
would vanish too.”
NGOs like
the Yamuna Foundation for Blue
Water and Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society have been exerting pressure
on the government agencies to take up cleanliness drives, build
puccaghats and dredge out silt
from the river bed to hold back monsoon overflow, but so far there has been no
positive response.
To add
to the confusion, a new bridge being constructed on the river, opposite
Etmauddaula, has only worsened the situation. "We do not know what the series
of Yamuna Action
Plans have accomplished so far. The result is largely zero," says Jal Purush Ram
Avtar Sharma.
