On November 28th, I headed back to Devprayag (Dev + Prayag = Divine + Confluence). Devprayag is a small township in the Himalayas (at around 2700 ft) where two rivers - Bhagirathi and Alaknanada meet forming the Ganga. Bhagirathi is considered to be the source stream of the Ganga. Devprayag was where Lord Ram came to atone for killing Ravan, who was a Brahmin and a devotee of Lord Shiv.
Devprayag is one of the five holy confluences or Panch Prayag in the Garhwal hills where different tributaries merge with river Alaknanda. Devprayag is considered to be the main confluence because it is here that Bhagirathi merges with Alaknanada and the combined waters are from now on called The Ganga. The other five confluences (prayag) being Vishnuprayag, where the Alaknanda is met by the Dhauliganga River, Nandaprayag, where it is met by the Nandakini River, Karnaprayag, where it is met by the Pindar River, and Rudraprayag, where it is met by the Mandakini River.
The waters of the rivers Bhagirathi and Alaknanda looked very clean and untouched. Very much unlike what I had just seen in Kanpur a few days back.
I met Sri Dinesh Bhatt, the priest at the ghat and also some tourists (Ramesh, Devesh, Abhijeet, Dinesh, Manoj) from the Delhi area. According to the priest, Devprayag is the actual place of the Kumbh Mela, but due to space constraints it was moved to Haridwar. On the issue of the dams on the Bhagirathi, he was of the opinion that the dam should not have been built. He said, on one hand the government is talking about reducing the pollution, and on te othe rit is creating pollution by building the dams, by going against the nature. He was the opinion that the amount spent on building the Tehri dam was much high than the amount of power it would ever generate. These dams would eventually lead to nature imbalance leading to loss of life and eventually Ganga will vanish from the face of earth.
He was bold enough to say that he has done nothing to save the Ganga. All he could do was to write letters to the Prime Minister, but to no avail. The bureaucrats and the politicians are the main culprits according to him. He also blamed the ineffectiveness of social activist Sunderlal Bahuguna towards Ganga or towards Garhwal.
For the tourists from Delhi, Ganga is a Pavitra (pure) river. Despite the fact that all the garbage from the Himalayan towns and villages is dumped into the Ganga or its tributaries, yet one feels cleansed after taking a dip in the river. They were also of the opinion that Ganga is our life line, so stopping the river for making electricity is not acceptable from one perspective, but then on the other hand if we are getting economically better by production of electricity, it is also acceptable. Yet, over all it is more harmful to mess with the nature for the benefit of human beings, according to them. They also suggested the use of solar and wind power to generate energy.
As I headed back up towards my taxi, I couldn't resist myself from snapping this picture... a stream of garbage directly being dumped into the Bhagirathi river. So much for the Divine Confluence. But then again where do the locals dump their waste... in the sewers provided by the authorities and All the sewers lead to the Ganga.
Devprayag is one of the five holy confluences or Panch Prayag in the Garhwal hills where different tributaries merge with river Alaknanda. Devprayag is considered to be the main confluence because it is here that Bhagirathi merges with Alaknanada and the combined waters are from now on called The Ganga. The other five confluences (prayag) being Vishnuprayag, where the Alaknanda is met by the Dhauliganga River, Nandaprayag, where it is met by the Nandakini River, Karnaprayag, where it is met by the Pindar River, and Rudraprayag, where it is met by the Mandakini River.
The waters of the rivers Bhagirathi and Alaknanda looked very clean and untouched. Very much unlike what I had just seen in Kanpur a few days back.
I met Sri Dinesh Bhatt, the priest at the ghat and also some tourists (Ramesh, Devesh, Abhijeet, Dinesh, Manoj) from the Delhi area. According to the priest, Devprayag is the actual place of the Kumbh Mela, but due to space constraints it was moved to Haridwar. On the issue of the dams on the Bhagirathi, he was of the opinion that the dam should not have been built. He said, on one hand the government is talking about reducing the pollution, and on te othe rit is creating pollution by building the dams, by going against the nature. He was the opinion that the amount spent on building the Tehri dam was much high than the amount of power it would ever generate. These dams would eventually lead to nature imbalance leading to loss of life and eventually Ganga will vanish from the face of earth.
He was bold enough to say that he has done nothing to save the Ganga. All he could do was to write letters to the Prime Minister, but to no avail. The bureaucrats and the politicians are the main culprits according to him. He also blamed the ineffectiveness of social activist Sunderlal Bahuguna towards Ganga or towards Garhwal.
For the tourists from Delhi, Ganga is a Pavitra (pure) river. Despite the fact that all the garbage from the Himalayan towns and villages is dumped into the Ganga or its tributaries, yet one feels cleansed after taking a dip in the river. They were also of the opinion that Ganga is our life line, so stopping the river for making electricity is not acceptable from one perspective, but then on the other hand if we are getting economically better by production of electricity, it is also acceptable. Yet, over all it is more harmful to mess with the nature for the benefit of human beings, according to them. They also suggested the use of solar and wind power to generate energy.
As I headed back up towards my taxi, I couldn't resist myself from snapping this picture... a stream of garbage directly being dumped into the Bhagirathi river. So much for the Divine Confluence. But then again where do the locals dump their waste... in the sewers provided by the authorities and All the sewers lead to the Ganga.
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