River

Rivers that used to nourish the farm lands have dried up. The waters that ferried people, nurtured the saplings, irrigated the fields and also quenched the thirsts seemed to be on decline. The rivers are not flowing as fast as they used to.

- Vinod Kumar

Shivaraman and his wife Asha looked around for something to do that is new. They are bored of all activities in and around their town. Very social couple. And had many friends. A picnic with children and five other couples on that empty space, yes there is a thrilling experience of going out together. That stretch of land that is cleared, so that people could sit there for near five hours. They played, joked, performed songs and danced, slept, ran and generally socialized. They ate lots of food and had a merry and memorable time. Yes the picnic was on the bank of the river.

Many have benefitted from picnics to the banks of river. Many stories and lessons that we learnt are because of these visits to river banks. Entertaining and educating, these rivers were part of our social and community living.

Well, these activities are all dreams. Today the rivers need to be helped by people. Rivers that used to nourish the farm lands have dried up. The waters that ferried people, nurtured the saplings, irrigated the fields and also quenched the thirsts seemed to be on decline. The rivers are not flowing as fast as they used to.

If the trends of drying up of rivers continues then we will have a severe water shortage. Famine and drought and perched landscape will eject people out of their habitat. Society and economics will crumble. We have arrived at that hour,when all our support and resources can be given to River Rejuvenation Projects (R.R.P).

We must come together to implement scientific and innovative methods of River rejuvenation. Many methods are invented but they need earnest efforts from people. People who live on river banks and rural areas have the first and nearest reach to the river.