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Sadhus protest stopping of Ganga flow
by Girish Kumar Dubey

     Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh): Dozens of sadhus or Hindu saints demonstrated in Varanasi on Thursday and threatened to drown themselves in the river Ganga if the authorities stopped the river's flow to fill up the controversial Tehri Dam reservoir. The protest came even as authorities in Uttaranchal closed the last diversion tunnel of the controversial dam filling the mammoth reservoir on Sunday, paving way for the commissioning of the project by March next year. The last diversion tunnel of the 2,400 mw Tehri Hydel project was closed following an order of the state's top court which lifted its interim stay on the closure. If this goes ahead then the flow of the river would be stopped for three years to fill the massive reservoir spread across 42 sq km area, and as the Hindu saints say, would deprive Varanasi of Ganges water, with which the sentiments of Hindus are associated. The Ganges, which is also called the "Bhagirathi" in the Himalyan region, travels over 2,500 kilometers (1,562 miles) through India's plains, where it takes on the name of the Ganges, before merging into the Bay of Bengal.

    The river was earlier also diverted across a few hundred kilometers in Tehri, where the project is coming up. Hindus however say the Ganges is divine and tampering of its course by mortals is sacrilegious, which would evoke the ire of celestial beings. Saints said they would not allow the holy river's flow to be stopped at all and demanded a run of the river system to facilitate the functioning of the dam. They favour the construction of small dams in spite of a one large one. "We will fight for our right. We only received information about the stopping the flow of Ganges and we are sad about it. We have asked the Ganges for the strength to struggle and we have vowed to struggle for it. If the government does not listen to us and wants Ganges to remain in Tehri, I appeal to all the holy men in the country to go to Tehri and jump in the Ganga," said Avimukeshwar Nand, a saint. Hindus traditionally take a dip in the Ganges as they believe its waters will cleanse them of their sins. The first phase of the 2000-megawatt dam is near completion and would be inaugurated by Congress party president Sonia Gandhi in December this year. The first phase would generate over 1000-megawatt of electricity. However, locals were unhappy with the slow progress of the relocation process and sought justice for the affected people. While most of old Tehri town and its surrounding villages have already been submerged, a few pockets still remain inhabited and evacuation of residents is absolutely essential for the first power grid to be operational. The Tehri project was started way back in 1976 as a joint venture between the Central and Uttar Pradesh governments. The multi-purpose dam is being built by the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation, at an estimated cost of 1,700 million U.S. dollars and is the world's fourth biggest dam. Environmentalists and scientists have been opposing the construction of the 260-metre high dam, as they say it is coming up in an earthquake- prone area, besides it displaces about 100,000 people. When completed, the dam will generate 2,400-megawatt electricity, control floods in the area and facilitate irrigation during the summer months.

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