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Photo: Vimlendu Jha

Wading in toxins! Children riding a boat on the Yamuna near Kalindi Kunj in New Delhi

“It is a pity that the river comes clean from the so-called illiterate villages, but when it enters the intellectual hub of the country, it loses its colour and character. Not to mention that it provides 70 per cent of the water supply to the city,” laments Vimlendu, who hails from Bihar and started the NGO in 2000 when he was studying in the city’s St. Stephen’s College. “So the attempt is to bring Yamuna on the mind map of Delhiites. And for this we are following a bottom-up approach making the kids aware of the importance of river,” he elaborates.

Vimlendu says the organisation has a tie-up with seven schools where they teach round the year and the Yamuna awareness has become a part of curriculum of these schools. Apart from showing documentaries, painting and essay writing, Vimlendu says, “We take kids for walks around Yamuna making them aware about the dangers of dumping waste through shramdaan.”

What about kids who live in the vicinity of the river? “They are not that important in Yamuna conservation because they are not dumping pizza packets. We are seeing a tap water generation which believes that it gets water from the tap. They have no idea that Yamuna is part of their daily life. The idea is to convince the so-called cream that there is nothing wrong in prosperity but there should be a human face to your existence. I tell the kids it is good to be successful but there is no harm in being good to the world around us as well.”

As for the Government’s role, Vimlendu feels that those in power are losing all common sense in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games. “Scientific studies clearly establish that Delhi comes in the seismic zone and the area gets flooded every 10 years. Still they are going ahead with the Games infrastructure on the flood plains and next in line is the Formula 1 race course. Everybody knows that after the Games the infrastructure would be used for housing. Meanwhile, despite all the action plans the river has turned black but you put the question to the Government and you will get a standard question for a reply. Why didn’t you stop the previous regime from building Akshardham Temple?”

However, Vimlendu believes that it is the general public which is largely responsible for the sad state of the river. “During the Puja they dump around 38 tonnes of paint by immersing the idols. In a way gods have become toxic! People don’t realise that earlier the idols were made of clay, today they use plaster of Paris.”

What keeps the 27-year-old going considering the river is losing the battle for existence by the day? “I know we can’t clean the river ourselves. But I tell you one incident. Recently, I took students of a high-end school to a village visit. What one of the girls wrote after coming back surprised me. She said it took her an hour to decide on which four pairs of salwar-kameez should she take on along with her. But in the village she found kids didn’t have even one to wear. Now she feels like gifting all four to them. This makes me believe that the cycle will change for better one day.”

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