By Hugh & Colleen Gantzer
‘Sunny’ Sahni gave us the good news. He said that water from the Yamuna reached Mussoorie on 14 May, this year. We felt vindicated. Ever since Mussoorie became our home in 1940, our little town has had to ration its drinking water supply to its permanent and transient visitors. But the quest to augment our supply had been a long and arduous task even though we had the Supreme Court of India behind us. So, before greedy netas try to boost their false claims, here briefly, are the facts.
We, in the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC), conceived the idea of pumping up water from the Yamuna to augment Mussoorie’s drinking water. No sarkari babu or political neta did it. They may have worked hard to find the money but it was at our initiative. Any attempt to divert this water to other places will give rise to questionable motives. We need not say more.
Uttarakhand protects the sources of three of our nation’s most revered rivers: the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. The last is real and not a legend and we have seen it roaring out of a Himalayan cave, a stimulating hike away from the first village in India. It is ironic that though these three sacred torrents are born in our mountains, we get only marginal benefit from their flow. The wealth eroded from our ranges enriches the flavour of basmati rice, mangoes and the delectable Hilsa fish all the way from the Doab, through Bihar, Bengal and down to the rich woods of the Andamans. This is Uttarakhand’s 24×7 gift to the rest of Bharat.
Nature, however, is not the only force eating away at the green hills of home. Our netas are also busy at work. Some wise men in Delhi are as busy as rodents gnawing at our mountains, First there are those burrowers who are intent on excavating tunnels through our slopes or are busily planning to do so. They have not learnt from the continuing disasters in Joshimath and beyond. A landslide there brought a sudden gush of water from the ravaged slopes. A highlander would say that a major aquifer had been reached and its springs would soon dry up. So, what makes our human rodents so confident that the proposed tunnel under Mussoorie would not kill our springs?
Quite apart from the likely destruction of our aquifers and a choking of our water supply is the possible diversion of rich tourists, who drive their own cars or can afford taxis, away from Mussoorie. In their place will come day trippers, who traditionally bring their own snacks, add to our waste and spend the bare minimum in our town.
Then, to the cable car! Why has no cash flow been revealed about this project? Why has no safety assessment been made public about this planned Dehra-Mussoorie Cable Car? Our money is being spent on this project. We are naturally suspicious because the details of the project are not revealed.
We started this column to express our relief at having water from the Yamuna reaching our town at long last. Now we would like to quote from a report in a national daily. GIVEN THE PRECARIOUS CONDITION OF ITS GROUND-AND SURFACE-WATER RESOURCES (RIVERS, STREAMS, LAKES, WETLANDS AND RESERVOIRS), INDIA COULD BE A WATER-SCARCE COUNTRY IN THE NEXT 40 YEARS…… WITH 1467 CUBIC METERS OF WATER AVAILABLE PER PERSON, PER ANNUM, INDIA FALLS IN THE WATER STRESS CATEGORY.
Trees are the greatest conservators of water. Their branches allow precipitation to settle
gently on the forest floor and not run off, thereby recharging aquifers. Their circulation system keeps forest floors damp, preventing desertification – their roots bind soil against landslides. And, yet, our forest mantris had to be prevented by the judiciary from decimating our rich forests for commercial gain with fringe benefits. As Rajiv Gandhi reportedly said, with a brutal frankness lacking in today’s politicians, “The fence eats the crops!”
All of which is why, we in Mussoorie had to pump up water from the Yamuna, and stay vigilant that a predatory mantri does not divert it to some suspicious high-rises on the way.
(Hugh & Colleen Gantzer hold the National Lifetime Achievement Award for Tourism among other National and International awards. Their credits include over 52 halfhour documentaries on national TV under their joint names, 26 published books in 6 genres, and over 1,500 first-person articles, about every Indian state, UT and 34 other countries. Hugh was a Commander in the Indian Navy and the Judge Advocate, Southern Naval Command. Colleen is the only travel writer who was a member of the Travel Agents Association of India.)
