US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

A promise made to the Ganga

Time magazine has picked him as one of the seven 'heroes of the planet'. But Veer Bhadra Misra considers himself a humble scavenger of the Ganga, which he describes as the "mother of all rivers".

The fifty-two-year-old from Varanasi has many facets to his personality. A civil engineer by profession, he is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the famed Benaras Hindu University. Yet, he continues with his family's tradition of performing the duties of a mahant at the Sankat-Mochan temple in the ancient holy Hindu city.

But what still remains on the top of his list of priorities is his resolve to clean up the Ganga.

"What pains me most is the unabated and ugly pollution of the holy river by all and sundry, in full view of the apathetic official machinery," Misra told rediff.com on the telephone from his Varanasi residence on the same Assi bank where his forefather -- the illustrious Goswami Tulsidas -- composed the Tulsi Ramayana.

But it isn't his lineage that has earned him the Time honour, but his relentless (17 years now) battle against the holy river's pollution.

The professor-cum-priest-cum-environmentalist has, in his own small way, managed to achieve what the Indian government's Rs 4,000 million Ganga Action Plan has failed to accomplish. "I have tried to evolve a pollution control system that blends culture and tradition with science and appropriate technology," he said while elaborating how his Swachcha Ganga Campaign is different from the highly mechanised GAP.

"My initiative is based on what we call the Additional Integrated Waste Water Pond System," Misra said. "This is a simple technique of allowing sewage to pass through a row of four ponds -- advanced facultative pond, high-rate pond, settling tank and maturation tank."

Misra said these tanks work as bio-reactors that remove microbes and pollutants in a phased manner and help bring down pollutants to 6 logarithms. His claim is based on the experiments his team conducted in five villages near Varanasi.

"Sewage discharge handled through this technique, which involves gravitational force to effect a symbiotic relationship between micro-algae and microbes, is free from faecal culiform bacteria and is highly suitable for pisciculture and irrigation," he pointed out. And since the process involves natural oxidation, it is also cost-effective.

The crusader has also worked out a blueprint for a new sewage system for Varanasi in collaboration with the local municipal corporation. But he laments that his proposal has met with little enthusiasm from the official machinery.

This is not the first time Misra has shot into the limelight. He was awarded the Global 500 roll of honour by the United Nations Environment Agency for his work on the Ganga at the 1992 Rio de Janeiro summit, where he went with a bottle of the 'holy Ganga water' and a copy of the Ramayana.

An exponent of music and dance too, Misra had invited legendary American folk singer Pete Seegar to put up a performance to promote the cause of a cleaner Ganga. Seegar, whose We Shall Overcome remains a popular hit even to this day, had earned much acclaim for his pioneering role in the 'Clean Hudson River' campaign in New York.

Also among Misra's unending list of admirers are Varanasi's noted Sanskrit scholar Acharya Vaghesh Shastri, who is currently teaching Sanskrit to pop star Madonna. When contacted, Shastri said:"We all love the Ganga, but Professor Veer Bhadra Misra has done pioneering work which has made all the difference to the mother of all rivers."

Another scholar, Suphal Kumar, author of Dateline Varanasi, a virtual thesis on the ancient city, said: "Ganga has innumerable names -- each one meaning purity and cleanliness. But as we enter a new millennium, the river is fighting a losing battle against pollution."

Misra, known for his unconventional ways, was also instrumental in getting lifted a ban on dance recitals by women at Varanasi's famed Hanuman Jayanti Music Festival. The festival is rated among the most important events on the Indian music calendar.

Even today, Misra begins his day with a dip in the Ganga, which flows just a few steps below his residence, and concludes it with the recitation of kirtan (devotional songs) at Dashashmedha Ghat.

In between, his time is divided between teaching civil engineering at the university and monitoring the Swachcha Ganga campaign's progress. "Isn't it an irony that the river, one dip in which is believed to wash away all your sins, today needs to be cleaned herself?" he said, his voice heavy with the realisation that there is still a long way to go.

Tell us what you think of this report