As I looked into the mesmerizing eyes of a young
gharial being released into its natural habitat in the river Ganga, I saw the
culmination of the first part of our collective journey for restoring the Ganga
and its tributaries. We took 20 ‘Ramganga
Mitras’ or community volunteers from four riparian districts of the Ramganga
river basin to participate in this experience that brought them in close
proximity to nature. The Ganga holds a special place in India’s social fabric,
and an animal whose habitat is a pristine river Ganga forged a special bond
with each of these conservation champions.
This experience was a part of a basin-level
initiative where more than 60 ‘Ramganga Mitras’ or riparian multi-stakeholder
groups from Bijnore, Moradabad, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh had
been brought together by WWF-India to create a platform for their collective
voice in river basin management. The meeting itself began with a song – a
clarion call to all stakeholders to conserve the Ramganga – written and
performed by Amar Singh from Shahjahanpur. During the course of the meeting I
had enriching conversations with various Mitras, many of whom I was meeting for
the first time. It is difficult to describe in words the feeling I had when a
group of farmers from Shahjahanpur told me how they managed to ward off a gang
of turtle poachers from their tiny hamlet. I was overcome by a sense of pride
when I saw one Anganwadi worker encourage other women in her group to speak out
for creating market-based mechanisms for bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers. From
a farmer seeing his daughters in me to a villager composing a song with
blessings for our work, there were inexplicable human connections that I formed
in that room. I sensed camaraderie within that group of ‘Ramganga Mitras’ which
could only be explained by a common sense of belonging to the land where the
river flowed. In a sense, they were out to restore the very river that tied
them all together.
My water journey began much before I knew I
would begin working for river conservation. As an engineer, I started working
as an engineering project management coordinator for a manufacturing firm.
Throughout my stint there, I felt that the primary cause of wastage of water
despite strict company rules was the employees’ lack of connect to water as a
life-giving entity. My search for answers to establish that connect brought me
to the issues of water governance and policy. This personal quest soon turned
into a professional one as I began working to establish this connect between
people and nature at WWF-India.
Our journey with the Ramganga Mitras started
with the formation of these multi-stakeholder groups in each of the four
districts comprising urban citizens, farmers, Anganwadi workers, local NGOs,
industries, students and teachers. We started the formation of Ramganga Mitras
at Moradabad in 2013 and have painstakingly built connections at a human level
for restoring the Ramganga through campaigns, workshops, exhibitions, discussions
– all ensuring the inculcation of the message of collective action for healthy
rivers. These Mitras have been integral
to WWF-India’s river conservation ethos, from grassroots implementation to
policy advocacy. Mitras in Bareilly have initiated awareness campaigns during
religious events through the course of the year; farmers and Anganwadi workers
have implemented as well as educated others on Climate Smart Agriculture
practices to reduce chemical fertilizer run-offs that pollute the surface and
groundwater in Shahjahanpur and Bijnore; the urban citizens have spearheaded an
urban wetlands census for Moradabad; the metal-ware industrialists have
implemented clean technology practices in electroplating units through
Moradabad. We have taken efforts to generate awareness, inculcate behaviour
change and implement sustainable conservation and water management practices,
but the ‘Ramganga Mitras’ have taken even more efforts to understand the river,
change their behaviours and participate in conservation initiatives have been
taken by our champions in the basin.
The Ramganga is a key tributary of the Ganga,
and is afflicted by similar challenges of low flows, domestic and industrial
pollution, agricultural run-offs and groundwater exploitation. The ‘Rivers for Life, Life for Rivers’
Programme is a five-year programme under the aegis of the HSBC Water Programme,
currently in its fourth year, that aims to restore the ecological health of the
Ganga and the Ramganga. This programme works on advocacy for Environmental
Flows in the rivers, improving the adaptive capacity of farmers, managing the
growing footprint of urban and industrial growth in the basin and conservation
of habitats of key endangered species endemic to the Ganga river system. The
Mitras are integral to each of these pillars of the programme. These
multi-stakeholder groups have been envisioned as a collective voice for a
healthy Ramganga that works towards an integrated river basin management
approach with a cognizance that water is a resource shared by all groups.
As time has passed, I have come to realise that
transformation of systems starts with transformation of the self. The lines of
distinction between my stakeholder groups and me as a facilitator have blurred
in process. I consider myself a ‘Ramganga Mitra’ too - an individual passionate
about restoring life in the Ramganga. We are constantly striving to empower ourselves
to realise our vision of a healthy Ramganga and influence river basin governance
to drive Ramganga conservation. As ‘Friends of the Ramganga’ (or Ramganga Mitras),
we have all covered significant distance in our journey towards claiming our
individual as well as collective voice for the Ramganga, but we still have a
long way to go in empowering communities to conserve their river.
