That is disgusting.
There are so many sides of a country, especially if it is a vast country like India!
How are you, C'da?
:)
>From: Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: [Assam] Fwd: [riverlink] Floating corpses as India shines >Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 08:54:59 -0500 > >>X-eGroups-Return: >>[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>X-eGroups-Return: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>X-Apparently-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>X-eGroups-Remote-IP: 203.199.122.32 >>From: Gopal Krishna <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>X-Yahoo-Profile: mediavigil >>X-eGroups-Approved-By: riverswatch2003 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>via web; 29 Apr 2004 05:17:34 -0000 >>X-eGroups-Remote-IP: 66.218.66.102 >>Mailing-List: list [EMAIL PROTECTED]; contact >>[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Delivered-To: mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 05:40:09 +0100 (BST) >>Subject: [riverlink] Floating corpses as India shines >>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> >> >>----- Original Message ----- >>From: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Sent: Monnday, April 26, 2004 11:16 AM >>Subject: Floating corpses as India shines >> >>Floating corpses as India shines >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >>Fishing out 60 floating corpses on the eve of Sattu Amavasya, a >>bathing festival that fell on April 19, from the 10-kilometres long >>stretch of river Ganga at Kanpur, the volunteers of Eco-Friends >>demonstrated the apathy with which the sacred river continues to be >>treated. As the British Sky One Channel crew captured the event on >>camera, the progress of cleaning the river under the ambitious >>Ganga Action Plan became too evident. >> >> >> >>�Be under no illusion that it happens on auspicious occasions >>only,�� cautions Rakesh Jaiswal, Executive Secretary of >>Eco-Friends. Since this civil society organization started its >>campaign to >> >>clean the Ganga in 1997, it has extracted some 1000 human corpses >>from the short stretch of the river in Kanpur alone. Extrapolate >>this data over the years and across the length of the river, >> >>the picture that emerges is gruesome and tragic. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >>Volunteers ferrying corpses to their final resting place >> >> >> >>Along with an estimated daily load of 1.5 billion litres of >>untreated sewage, the Ganga ferries thousands of half-burnt corpses >>that are put into the river for spiritual rebirth. The result is >>deeply ironic; the ancient symbol of purity has become a great open >>sewer along much of its length. When the 15th century poet Kabir >>wrote of the Ganga, ``hell flows along that river, with rotten men >>and beasts�, few would have believed that his impious lament would >>one day be true. >> >> >> >>�The harsh truth is,� laments Jaiswal, �that though the campaign >>has succeeded in garnering the vital support of local communities >>who live along the river the concerned government agencies have >>looked the other way.� But under this growing apathy and the >>pressures of burgeoning population, the Ganga�s incredible >>cleansing capacity seems to be giving up. Today, in the basin of a >>half-billion souls purification and pollution swim together in >>unholy wedlock. >> >> >> >>While inability to afford the cremation expenses accounts for >>one-third of the floating corpses, another one-third is entirely >>due to the strong belief that immersing the dead brings moksha or >>salvation. Ironically, the remaining one-third is composed of those >>unclaimed bodies that the police conveniently dump into the river. >>It is an unbelievable commentary on the manner in which the dead >>humans and the living river gets treated. >> >> >> >>As the river moves center-stage in the proposed interlinking of >>rivers, a la Ganga-Cauvery link, the transferred waters to the >>south will have to ferry the pollutants of the dreadful kind as >>well. As the unsuspecting masses in the peninsular south are made >>to believe the virtues of linking the rivers, the likes of >>Jayalalitha and Rajnikant only need to walk along a stretch of the >>Ganga on any given day to reconfirm their unstinted faith in $ 120 >>billion interlinking of rivers proposal. >> >> >> >>�Reassurance that the river will be cleansed of its incredible >>pollutant load before the proposed interlinking gets underway must >>be taken with a pinch of salt,�� cautions Jaiswal. If the >>million-dollar Ganga Action Plan could not clean the river a bit in >>the past two decades, what guarantee such assurances stand in the >>wake of the unprecedented failure of the Plan? Conversely, the >>river is more polluted now as compared to the time when the project >>was launched two-decades ago. >> >> >> >>Even the flesh-eating turtles released in the Ganga to munch the >>dead bodies have failed to make any significant impact. Released >>into a stretch of river at Varanasi in the late 1980s, poaching may >>have accounted for a better part of their promised appetite. Far >>from replicating the bio-control measure in other areas, the >>project seems to have fallen flat owing to increase in pollutant >>concentration vis-�-vis reduced flow in the river. >> >> >> >> >> >>Myth has it that goddess Ganga descended to earth in the form of a >>river, to fuel life into 60,000 sons of the ancient ruler King >>Sagara, who had been burned to ashes by an enraged ascetic. If >>Ganga originally came to bring salvation to Sagara�s 60,000 sons, >>the poor goddess has ended up with a burden 10,000 times greater >>than she bargained for. It is for the people of the peninsular >>India to decide whether they would share the burden, should the >>interlinking of rivers come true! >> >> >> >>Sudhirendar Sharma >> >> >> >>Formerly with the World Bank, Dr Sharma is a development writer >>associated with the Delhi-based the Ecological Foundation. He can >>be reached at <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >><http://in.rd.yahoo.com/specials/mailtg/*http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony/>Yahoo! >>India Matrimony: Find your partner >><http://in.rd.yahoo.com/specials/mailtg2/*http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony/community.php>online. >> >>Yahoo! Groups Links >> >>To visit your group on the web, go to: >><http://groups.yahoo.com/group/riverlink/>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/riverlink/ >> >>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: >><mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the >><http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/>Yahoo! Terms of Service. >_______________________________________________ >Assam mailing list >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam > >Mailing list FAQ: >http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/assam/assam-faq.html >To unsubscribe or change options: >http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam
Stop worrying about overloading your inbox - get MSN Hotmail Extra Storage!
_______________________________________________
Assam mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam
Mailing list FAQ:
http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/assam/assam-faq.html
To unsubscribe or change options:
http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam
