Living rivers, dying rivers: Everything you wanted to know about rivers in India
In an attempt to join crucial debates surrounding the alarming increase in environmental degradation, especially of rivers and river systems, Prof. Ramaswamy Iyer, India’s foremost expert in the field conceived and carried forward a series of talks titled ‘Living Rivers, Dying Rivers’ with support of India International Centre.
India's rivers--some sick or dying, some living and healthy, and others showing early signs of sickness--were taken up for presentations and discussion. An attempt was made by river conservation experts to understand what has gone wrong in many cases, what has gone right in some and importantly, what needs to be done to revive and restore dying or sick rivers. The lectures highlight the complex challenges faced by the rivers which on the one hand are worshipped as divinity and on the other hand abused.
The lecture series held over a year underscored the deplorable state of many of the Indian rivers because of excessive pollution, over abstraction of river waters, destruction of the river system - the river-bed, banks and floodplains, and so on. Prof. Iyer was of the view that “underlying such abuses is a poor understanding of what constitutes a river”. The lecture series in addition dealt with the government’s highly unsound attitudes towards rivers and called for a re-examination of the approaches followed by it.
The lectures includes the following rivers:
Lecture date
Speakers
Challenges
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- Utility, aesthetic and religious value of natural ecology is invaluable
- Life-line of crores of our people
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