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For the city I remember affectionately – Kanpur!

This is Kanpur, my birth place.  I vividly remember  sumptuous breakfast of Shatabdi Express that would accompany us every summer I traveled back to Kanpur , the famous ‘thagoo ke ladoo’ where my mother would stop by for popular Kanpuria laddos, traversing in ethnic rickshaws bustling the roads with ear scratching horns, narrow by lanes filled with aroma of spices. Loud ‘dhik-chik’ Bollywood music is the trade mark welcome greeting in the Phool Bagh area where beloved grandparents resided.

Sadly, the city’s massive industrialization coupled with unplanned development has reduced it to hub of non stop factory sirens, gushing chimneys, smoggy atmosphere and the holy Ganga which has been reduced to a sewage drain. As a visitor to the city you would never be invited or recommended a visit to the Ganga. Maybe that’s why I do not remember it as a part of my itinerary. The convenient reason given is that it slightly far from the city.

But the horrifying truth is today Ganga ranks in the top five most polluted rivers of the world.

About 250 million liters of waste water and poisonous effluents are discharged from hundreds of tanneries standing erect near the banks of Ganga. Most tanneries do not have water treatment plants. Incase they do, the plants aren’t operational. And if these plants manage to run somehow , power cuts ensure more than 300 million liters of noxious black brown chemicals to gush into the azure of Ganga.

The effluents contain animal remains, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, chrome that kills the fish and give life to weeds that choke the river.

Huge population of fish, turtles and other aquatic flora and fauna continue to lose their lives everyday.

An ordinary person residing in Kanpur may not have woken up to this aquatic eco disaster which was the first alarm of  a larger biodiversity loss… but recent tales of failed crops, skin diseases, illness,  death toll in villages around have shaken the Government and the tannery industry.

Government attempts like an exclusively constructed tannery sewage treatment plant  in Jajmau are repeatedly failing. Nishad, a farmer in Shekharpur village says, “Our water was polluted with chromium , so we needed pumps to draw water from the underground table at 150 feet. We are not allowed to go deeper. Water is exhausted. How will we grow water with chromium water? What will we drink?”
“ We have stopped grieving. No one cares. There is no hope.” Said Ritu Nishad, 18, who lost his father, mother and aunt in one month.  Several have complained about intestinal pains, burning skin sensations etc.
Even the drinking water going to city is not safe. The water suction areas of Jal Board are near slaughterhouses, burning ghats, sewage lines.
Dr. Padma Vankar, scientist from IIT Kanpur who tested the Ganga water says , “ When we tested the water, we saw that the test tube turned blue, which indicates the presence of chrome. Chrome causes various diseases.”


India’s most ambitious river cleaning project, the Ganga Action Plan (GAP), is a colossal failure. Despite spending Rs.20,000 crore on the project, the river remains polluted. The project is 13 years behind schedule. Hard earned money of us tax payers has literally gone down the drain.

About 83 tanneries do not have chromium recovery plants within their premises. Another 20 tanneries discharge waste water directly into  the Ganga.

In 2006, the UPPCB had issued closure notices to 15 tanneries. To our dismay, all 15 units began operating within a months time even after the closure notice was pasted on their gates. Several pollution control drives were initiated in the past but the curbs failed to reap any benefit due to political interference. 

Non-stop inflow of untreated civic waste and industrial effluents have choked Ganga.

About 400 million people look to the Ganga as a primary source of freshwater. No other river supports such a large population in the world. Ganga is the fulcrum where all diversity, faith, culture of India unite. Time has given has several opportunities. It is still not to late to save Ganga.

Amidst all the trouble there has been a ray of hope. In the recent past we have witnessed success stories like WWF India’s Living Ganga programme, cost effective technologies developed by IIT-Kanpur scientists etc. Hopefully, these small successes will bring back the lifetime glory of our scared Ganga and erase the taint industrial baggage from my beloved city.

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When Protecting Environment is not just a mission, it is a way of Life!!

Today we are the brink of runaway climate change. We have studied about Global Warming, ice caps melting and life threatening consequences from it, we perennially hear about the ever increasing list of endangered species. Yes, we are aware. We do realize. And as informed citizens, what do we do?Nothing! Not until we are pushed by inspiring and motivating social campaigns.

My family was a part of the Earth Hour Campaign. We stayed up, lit some candles, shared stories and ate popcorn. A miniscule effort from one family yet we felt great. I can proudly say that I am a part of an astronomical campaign… and I have contributed rightly in the making of future. And of course from larger perspective these draw the country’s attention to climate change concerns which otherwise languish under the pile of political, financial or rat race issues. Some may criticize Earth Hour of it’s ambitious goals and call it unrealistic since power cut is anyway a part of our daily routine.
However, they miss the point. The catch is, two million people simultaneously and voluntarily switch off their lights. Imagine the extent to which we are able to conserve and reduce the burden on our natural resources by a small gesture.
This is where contribution of every individual is counted. When for a minute an individual is able to the focus above the vicious cycle of home-work home gig ….. he/she becomes a part of a life saving mission.

My recent shift to WWF has helped me move out of the circuit of hustle bustle, cut throat competition and for once value small yet intriguing things in life. The office has a unique system of switching off the ACs during lunch time and exactly at 5.30 pm when the office hours are over. While on day one I thought ‘Wow, they really want us to leave now’, but on a real tip it actually means Conserve Electricity! Plus for anyone who comes from a corporate world may find it a luxury to work for exactly 8 hours.

Here Protecting Environment is not just a mission, it is a way of Life.

Recently as a part of the Tiger Conservation Volunteer Programme I was sent to Kanha

for a field visit and understand the nitty-gritty of grass root level activities. We travelled for almost 24 hours to reach the Mandla office which is the site office for WWF. Volunteer from across India were invited to join in. People from various occupational backgrounds, ages pitched in from across India. It is probably their enthusiasm and participation that keeps us going.

It was a total bliss to spot the Magnificent beast in the core of Kanha on day one. The Tiger was radio collared. We tracked him for almost an hour. Looks like this enchanting beast enjoyed the celebrity status as he walked past our jeep into a pond. We were all in awe and mesmerized by it’s sight.

We also visited Self Help Groups in Magadwari. It has a population of only 100 people and equal ratio of men and women where almost all of them were literate. They gave us a grand welcome with Folk Dance and Music. Unlike typical metropolitan belief that villages are cumbersome, unhygienic and lack the luxuries of city life , these villagers are self-content , complacent with several Government Schemes and high on mahua!

The Programme Coordinator who arranged for the entire trip is a PhD in Vulture Behavior! He is literally worshipped by the villagers who reside in the buffer zone of Kanha and from their behaviour I won’t shy away from saying that WWF India is considered above the Government.

The Livelihoods of these tribal villagers is of utmost importance to conserve the forests since

most of them are Ex-poachers who now work as Forest Guards. Educating them is a key to resolve Human-Animal Conflict and Poaching.

Government and MNCs have been supportive in terms of policies and fund raising respectively.

Electric Poles have been erected finally though the supply is yet to happen. Some private

companies like Tata BP Solar etc have come forward and donated Solar Lanterns, Water Heaters etc.

While a lot is being done for the emancipation of the Self Help Groups, there is a long way to go. The recent Save Our Tigers Campaign is probably one of the most popular social media campaigns on air. It was assumed that if Rs.10 was contributed by every Indian citizen then a fund of Rs.10 million would have been raised. Had the corporates come forward then another Rs.5 million (these figures are just assumptions).It could be in terms of a lumpsum or Pay-Roll etc.

As opposed to these assumptions the appalling part is that the fund raised is much lower.

We Indians love to debate, discuss, deliberate but when it comes to actions it is just on papers

and nothing substantial. Or at least we think too much before we act upon and the opportunities slither away.

Thanks to the various awareness campaigns that now we talk green, we appreciate models painted as animals in cages for ads, we join ‘Save Tiger’ facebook groups. And then?

Well now the responsibility lies in your hands to act upon and take it a step further. Join,

Contribute, Volunteer. Make your date with Future!