PROBASHI- A Cultural News Magazine Volume 2 Issue 2 | Page 32

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call of his heart for rescuing the
river from the constant onslaught
and Shri Anand Arya, an
environmentalist keenly interested
in the bird life along the river
Yamuna and equally concerned
about the increasing attempts on
usurpation of the riverbed. They
took the course which the law of
the land allows and filed a PIL in the
Delhi High Court on the issue in
February 2007. The High Court
referred the matter to the Justice
Usha Mehra Committee. By the
time High Court order was passed
in May 2007, the Times Global
Village event had already taken
place. However based on the report
of the Committee, the High Court
observed that the event was illegal
and should not have taken place in
the first place. It forbade any such
event on the river bed in future.
The resistance against the Times
Global Village was the beginning of
the long relentless battle to save
the dying river.
The Yamuna’s 22 km stretch in
Delhi is barely 2 per cent of the
length of the river, but contributes
over 70 per cent of the pollution
load. Delhi discharges about 3,684
MLD (million litres per day) of
sewage through its 18 drains into
the Yamuna and along with Agra it
accounts for 90 per cent of the
pollution in the river. The river
remains a sewage canal due to the
143 unauthorised colonies, 1080
slums and villages that present a
problem in collection of sewage
water that flows into the Yamuna
untreated.

Yamuna Jiye Abiyaan

number of like minded voluntary
NGOs
like
Peace
Institute
Charitable Trust, Toxics Link, CMS
Environment, LIFE, Matu People's
Sangathan, Pani Morcha and
eminent personalities joined in,
and the movement as a
collaborative of the people got a
formal launch on February 7, 2007.
For the first time there was a group
which cared for the river’s well
being in Delhi.
The next challenge to the river
came when the Government
decided
to
construct
the
Commonwealth games village on
the floodplain of the river. The
concern was that floodplain is the
major basin for recharging ground
water, something on which Delhi’s
drinking
water
significantly
depends. The government planners
had however missed this point
completely. When requests and
pleading with the authorities to
reconsider the decision failed, the
Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan decided to
take direct action, and on 1 August
2007, sat on a dharna at the site of
the Commonwealth Games Village.
The activists assembled at 4 am in
the morning and initiated tree
plantation at the site. Twelve
prominent members of the
movement, gathered under the
only large Shisham tree and Puja
was performed, pits were dug and
22 trees were planted by 6.00 A.M.
As the day progressed more and
more people gathered at the site
and joined the dharna including the
farmers from nearby settlements
and other notable personalities.
Satyagrah continued thereafter
through regular dharnas. Mahatma
Gandhi was smiling.

The resistance against the Times
Global Village was the genesis of
the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan (YJA), a
people’s movement to revive the Despite protest and protestations,
river from its pathetic condition. A when work on the Games Village
30

Shri Manoj Kumar Mishra is a Forestry
and Wildlife expert, who formerly
worked with the Indian Forest Service.
Today he is the Executive Director of the
PEACE Institute Charitable Trust and
Convenor, and head of Yamuna Jiye
Abhiyaan. He holds Masters Degrees in
Mathematics, Forestry and Wildlife
Management. He was the Chief
Conservator of Forest, and gave all up to
listen to the call of his heart- i.e. to save
the Yamuna River which has its origin in
the State dear to him - Uttarakhand.
Probashi met Shri Mishra for doing a
feature on him; however he suggested
that instead we do a feature on the
Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, and told us that
he as an individual did not matter. We
have in a way digressed by publishing his
photograph and a small write-up on