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‘Tehri’ Kills ‘Kumbh’

There was a practice of taking bath in the Krishna River and carrying water to the temple of Srisailam on the hill and offering the same to Lord Shiva. Now water of the Krishna stinks in the Srisailam dam and this practice has come to an end. The same has happened to the temples below Hirakud Dam on the Mahanadi in Odisha. The practice of circumambulating the Narmada is declining after construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. This capacity of water is recognized in all major religions. Muslims' experience is that waters of the Zam Zam have miraculous powers. Christians baptize the newborn with water. The Government of India however, does not recognize that water is like a bank locker where one can put valuables and take them back. Water holds, retains, carries and gives psychic messages.

Crores of pilgrims come to the Kumbh with pious thoughts. Water of the Ganga absorbs these thoughts. These psychic waves are spontaneously transferred to the inner psyche of the pilgrim who takes a dip at the Sangam.

An attempt was made to assess the value of the psychic charges lost due to making of the Tehri Dam. Pilgrims were asked to give a monetary value of the benefit they obtained from taking a dip in the Ganga. This was reckoned at Rs 51k per pilgrim. Then they were asked how much this benefit had increased or decreased compared to the benefit they derived during their previous visit before making of the Tehri Dam. 80 percent pilgrims said the benefits had decreased due to poorer quality of water. 20 percent said the benefits had increased due to increase in flow during winter and summer. On the whole it was assessed that the benefits declined by about 25 percent or Rs 13k per pilgrim due to making of the Tehri Dam. Multiplying this with the number of pilgrims the loss to people from the construction of Tehri Dam may be about Rs 65,000 crore per year.

The benefits from generation of electricity from the Tehri Dam are small in comparison. About 270 crore units of electricity are generated every year. A study by TERI indicates that the 'willingness to pay' for electricity is about Rs 6.9 for industrial consumers and Rs 3.7 for farmers. Deducting the purchase price of Rs 5 and 2 respectively one arrives at an estimate of net benefit to these consumers of about Rs 2 per unit. The benefit from generation of electricity from Tehri Dam is, therefore, about Rs 540 crore per year. This is about one-tenth of the benefit that could be got from removing the Tehri Dam and harnessing the psychic powers of the Ganga.

A similar decline in psychic quality of water is taking place at the Kumbh. The psychic powers are firstly destroyed at the Vishnu Prayag and Tehri hydropower dams on the Ganga. A cascade of dams is also in operation on the Yamuna. Practically all water of the Himalayan Ganga is removed for irrigation at Narora; and that of Yamuna is removed at Hathnipur. River water at the Kumbh is mainly coming from Ram Ganga and Chambal Rivers that join after these removals. Even the psychic charges remaining in water after passing through hydropower projects are barely reaching the Kumbh. The water is further sullied due to disposal of pollutants in Ganga from tanneries at Kanpur; and in Yamuna from industries at Delhi and Agra.
The Government has embarked on a policy using every drop of water of every river in the country for irrigation, carrying pollutants and generation of hydropower even though this is wholly anti-people and anti-economic growth.
[contributed]

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 41, Apr 21- -27, 2013

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