Ganga changing track fast at Allahabad

When next time Kumbh is organised here, the Ganga may have shifted a long way, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Aug 16, 2007, 21:15:32 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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When next time Kumbh is organised in Allahabad, the Ganga may have shifted a long way. The government has apparently for the first time has recorded the phenomenon, which has gathered pace in the past few years.

A study by the Central Water Commission has confirmed that the sacred river for Hindus, Ganga, is changing track fast and in future may pose danger to Phaphamau town, if remedial measures are not taken soon, Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

The technical team comprising of experts from Ganga Flood Control Commission, Patna, UP Government, Ministry of Railways and Central Water Commission, found that Ganga has moved towards Phaphamau side and it has been rapid in the last few years.

The reason for Ganga gaining pace in changing track are two, first, higher silt generation leads to more deposits on the bank and second, more wastage generated by human reaching the river.

The committee also found that about 1.5-2 kilometres upstream of the river, there had been erosion of the river belt but, at present, no danger is posed to railway bridges and a road leading to the town. “The road leading to Phaphamau town is 600 metres away from the river flow and protects the town. The river is fast moving its track and immediate precautionary measures are needed,” the committee observed.

Although the survey was site inspection of the river, the committee has recommended morphological studies with remote sensing techniques within 20 kilometres to study the impact of Ganga changing its track. The UP government has also been asked to conduct a model study of the river in the vicinity of bridges and roads to analyse the Ganga’s future impact of infrastructure.

The committee also observed that the Ganga’s changing its route can have a major impact during future monsoons, when the river flow is more intense and its carries much more water than usual. The UP has been asked to ‘closely’ monitor the river flow during monsoon months.

In the last few years, Ganga has also swirled a lot at many places including Varanasi and Patna, which the scientists term as a natural course of river flow. But, has cautioned that if human interference is not checked the shift may gain pace in future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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