Bhagirathi almost vanishes in Uttarkashi...

On our way back from Gangotri we stopped again in Uttarkashi... another holy town on the banks of river Bhagirathi. As the name suggests it is Kashi of the North (Uttar). The other Kashi is of course the Kashi of the East or of Plains which is Varanasi. Both these towns are situated on river Ganga (Bhaigirathi), and also on two other rivers which are called Varuna and Asi in both the towns, although they are not connected to each other. Both the towns have temples dedicated to Lord Shiva (Vishwanath). The Vishwanath temple in Uttarkashi has a huge trishool (trident) which is said to have been used by Lord Shiva to kill demon Vakasur. The priest there told us the meaning of "Kashi" as a place where ones sins get absolved.

All that aside, what really bothered me was a dam in Maneri on river Bhagirathi, one kilometer from Uttarkashi (going towards Gangotri). The dam literally brings Bhagirathi to a standstill, with water just trickling through one of the openings in the dam. The stretch following the dam and before water, post power production, is thrown back into the river through pipes, Bhagirathi is transformed into a tiny almost dry stream. For a moment I felt very disheartened seeing a breakage in the flow of Bhagirathi. Again the same debate crops up. Those who work and earn from the dam do not care a bit, but the religious people and the environmentalists feel these dams are meddling with faith and environment, respectively.

Tehri Dam... are the locals really unhappy?

The Tehri dam on river Bhagirathi (main tributary to Ganga) is the main dam amongst all other that are part of the TDP (Tehri Development Project), and is 5th tallest dam in the world (260m tall), and tallest Embankment (Earth and Rockfill) dam in Asia. A piece of marvel indeed!

The proposed benefits to the project include generation of 2400 MW of electricity (2000 MW from the Tehri dam and 400 MW from the Koteshwar dam), irrigation of 270,000 hectares of land, 270 million gallons of drinking water to 3 states (Delhi, Uttarpradesh and Uttrakhand).  

A clear example of water extraction! Water extraction leading to disturbance of the mother nature... the flora and the fauna in the area, but then again generating power and getting drinking water to millions. Now debate is between faith and environment on one side and economy and livelihood on the other.

The other side of the dam is the reservoir (an artificial lake to store water). It looked really beautiful as the dawn was falling upon the area. What's the name of this beautiful lake? Tehri lake? Tehri dam lake? ... hey wait... there was no lake here...it's that tiny stream of the sacred Bhagirathi river that has now been converted into a lake! The flow of water has been stopped... to fill the reservoir.

As the reservoir filled up, it submerged the town of Tehri and around 40 other small villages. As we drove along the Bhagirathi "lake" we noticed the top of a submerging Hindu Temple. It was almost dark by then, I had to crank up my Canon 5D's ISO to get some snaps...

Were the locals unhappy about the temple going under the water...No! No they were not! Why not... well they got employment at the dam, they could send their children to school and had enough to eat... and the TDP build a new Temple higher up at the New Tehri town. Looks like faith is losing it's ground here in the debate. And then I happened to talk to another local who said "King Bhagirath brought down the river Bhagirathi for the benefit of the mankind ... and Tehri dam on Bhagirathi is benefiting the mankind in the form of power, irrigation, employment etc... then why the fuss about?" Is he right... for many yes... for many others no... and most do not even care!

We drove to Rani Chauri, the hill campus of our Alma Matter - Govind Ballabh Pant University - and retreated for the night. The buildings reminded us of Pantnagar... and seeing the students brought back the memories of our student life! Very nostalgic.

The Dams!

The first dam we came across was the Koteshwar Hydro Electric Project dam which was under construction. It's a part of the Tehri Development Project (TDP) that aims to generate electric power of about 4000 Mega Watt from several dams. The Koteshwar dam looked like a huge dam to us... but that was only till we saw the main Tehri dam.

On seeing the constructions, the first feeling was - why are we messing with the nature? The beautiful Bhagirathi that we were moving along had all of a sudden changed into a men-made canal sort of. It was blocked at several places and made to flow through pipes. And in a few days, when the dam would be functional, the area would be flooded by the reservoir water inundating the nearby village(s). I felt a sense of bereavement. Ganga was indeed dying...

A few kilometers further up Bhagirathi looked as untouched as ever ... but then we started to see broken mountains, dust, construction vehicles... and then we noticed the humongous Tehri Dam. A piece of marvel indeed... but yet again at the cost of Environment and Cultural beliefs. Now the debate is between faith and nation's progress. Faith says no dams, but a nation's economic progress needs electric power, people need water...

I started talking to locals... no one would talk to me when I asked them if I could record their voice or take pictures. Then I decided to hide my microphone. The first impression I got was... the locals were not all that unhappy about the dams after all. As per them first they got employment at the construction facility, then at the dam itself, and if their house went under the water of the reservoir they got a good compensation in the form of money and a piece of land near Haridwar (at Patthree). This land, as I heard, most of the beneficiaries sold for a hefty sum of around Rs 30 to 35 Lakhs ( ~ US $80,000).

Towards Tehri via Devprayag

As we passed Rishikesh, we started to drive into the Himalayas and the Ganga looked smaller and smaller with every kilometer we drove. The Ganga looked like a beautiful stream, no where like the majestic river we just saw in Rishikesh. All along the river there were temporary camps nestled in the valley where from people would raft their way down towards Rishikesh (for Rs 500 per person i.e. $10). People were even rock climbing. All this made me feel, this river has indeed given us a lot, and made me wonder even more as to what have we given her in return!

A suspension bridge over the Ganga

We reached Devprayag via Byasi and after clicking a few snaps headed towards Tehri right away. It was a narrow road but had hardly any traffic on it, it not being the main route to Tehri from Rishikesh. Bhagirathi ran along side the road. We crossed several tiny villages on our way. There was a village almost every 5-10 km on the road and several other in the mountains.

One thing that really amazed me was to find cacti on the Himalayas... have they always been there or are the Himalayas warming up... or were they really cacti?

Start off!!

We (My brother Lt Colonel Rajul Rathi and myself) started off from Meerut evening of Nov 10th 2009, halted at Muzaffarnagar where we would get our taxi from (arranged by my cousin Vikram Veer), and headed towards Tehri on the morning of Nov 11th.

Our plan was to reach Tehri before dawn via the town of Devprayag. It was an extra 100 km to go via Devprayag but the idea was to check out the route and take pictures on our way down. 

The day started well and we were very excited to have begun the project. Passed Roorkee on our way and reached Haridwar where we got the first glimpse of the Ganga. It being winters, the glaciers had stopped melting and there was so little water in the Ganga that I could easily see the bed of the river. That's when I realized that most of the water was being diverted through a barrage towards Har-Ki-Pauri - a very religious spot for Hindus to bathe at. Most of the water then went into the Upper Ganga Canal (A men-made canal system that runs parallel to the Ganga river, helping irrigate the land in the state of Uttrakhand and Uttar Pradesh), and some was re-diverted back into the Ganga (if there was water in excess, mainly during the monsoons).



We carried on towards Rishikesh and that's where the Ganga looked very majestic and beautiful. It was wide and full of water. Rishikesh is a bustling holy town full of tourists from all over the world - many of them come looking for enlightenment, and most just for fun.

As we drove by Rishikesh we noticed a completely dry river … later we were told that it's a seasonal river and collects only rain waters.