Revitalization of Rivers in India Draft Policy - Isha Guru Jaggi Vasudev

Preface
My engagement with mountains, forests and rivers goes back to my
early childhood – not just in terms of nature and its resources that one
enjoys, but as experiencing them as an integral part of myself. With four
truck tubes and bamboo poles tied together, I have traversed the river
Kaveri for 13 days alone. I saw the river as a life much larger than myself.
People like you and me come and go, but the river has flowed for millions
of years and sustains life in proportions that you cannot imagine. A river is
not a resource to me; it is an immense Life. The very nature of our existence
is such that literally three-fourths of our body is water. So water is not a
commodity – water is life-making material. When it is in this body, how
much of attachment we have towards it! When it is flowing out there, why
are we treating it any differently?
In the last 25 years I have been watching with concern, the gradual
depletion of river flows across the country. The flow is not one year up and
one year down, but steadily, gradually depleting. Last year this depletion
has taken a very steep downturn. If our rivers deplete like this in our own
lifetime, we are clearly making a statement that we are not interested in the
future of our children, in the wellbeing of future generations in this land.
I am not a scientist and have no appropriate scientific knowledge
or words to articulate this. But in my simple observation, I see it is lack
of vegetation and excessive groundwater exploitation that have together
wrought havoc upon our rivers. When there is not enough vegetation,
especially in a tropical climate, the soil will turn into sand. Soil and rivers
are deeply connected. If we deplete our soil, we will also deplete our rivers.
This is what has happened to us today – our water bodies have depleted and
our soil is degraded.
The greatest achievement in this country has been that our farmers
– without much infrastructure, without any science, with just traditional
knowledge –have been able to provide food for 1.3 billion people of this
nation. But depletion of organic content in the soil and inadequate water
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