Close to 100 representatives and activists of various local organizations from Kangra and other districts held a public meeting and a one day solidarity fast and public meeting on “Clean and Free Flowing Himalayan Rivers” at Dharamshala on 5th February, 2019 outside Hanuman Mandir from 10 am to 4 pm. The fast, led by veteran environmentalist Kulbhushan Upmanyu, also lent full support to 26 year old Atmabodhanand, an engineering student-turned-seer, who has been fasting for more than 100 days at Matri Sadan Ashram, Haridwar for ‘Aviral- Nirmal Ganga’. “Today is Atmabodhanand’s 105th day of fasting. Before him late GD Agrawal, former professor at IIT, Kanpur who observed fast for 111 days lost his life in AIIMS Rishikesh on 11th Ooctober,2018 fighting for the same cause” said Upmanyu.
Even as the Central Government is spending crores of rupees under the Nmamai Gange program in the name of cleaning Ganga, the situation of the river has gone from bad to worse in the last four years as per a report of the Central Pollution Control Board. Scrapping of all 54 proposed dams on the Ganga and its tributaries, Strict Action to stop the pollution of Ganga downstream and passing of the Ganga Act which curtails illegal sand mining and large scale deforestation in the catchment of the Ganga basin are the key demands being made. Abha Bhaiyya of Jagori Grameen who also lent their support to the campaign said that the Ganga belongs to all of us, not to any one community or state. “The lynching of nature has to be stopped if our coming generations have to survive she said.
Sumit Mahar of Himdhara Collective, who gave the call for the program, added “Its not just Ganga.
