NAINITAL: What price electricity? Alaknanda, the majestic glacial river from the high Himalayas that gives Bhagirathi its immense volume and turns it into the Ganga, is drying up in large swathes (from six to 26 km) even before it meets the Bhagirathi at Devprayag, raising deep concerns about the future of India’s holiest river. 

Alaknanda, which once sliced through the Lambagar area just below the 400 mw Vishnu Prayag hydroelectric power project in Chamoli, doesn’t flow there any more. Reason: heavy construction work for a hydroelectric project has forced it to change its course. Environmentalists warn that a delicate ecological balance in the area has been gravely imperilled and say that up to 26 km of riverbeds along the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi have begun to dry up. 

In the case of Alaknanda, the tragedy unfolded soon after the Uttarakhand government cleared the construction of a 12-km-long tunnel and a four-storeyed hydro-electric project in Chamoli about two years ago. Apparently, the explosives used to build the project in the nearby river area and the debris of the construction material played a major role drying up of the riverbed. ‘‘This is killing the flora and fauna of the region,’’ says Dehradun-based senior scientist N Ravi Chopra, who conducted a detailed research on the major causes of the drying up of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi riverbeds. 

The story at Maneri Bhali village in Uttarkashi district, which Chopra has identified as seriously damaged and dry area, is no different. The fate of its 10-km stretch along the Bhagirathi riverbed was sealed by large quantities of debris of construction material for constructing a power-house and other buildings for another 400-mw project. 

‘‘These dry stretches run for at least 20km from the construction site. The river thereafter begins to revive when other streams and rivulets join it,’’ said Chopra. For a government eager to undertake development work in rural areas, the revival of rivers doesn’t seem to be the top priority. The director of state disaster management cell Piyush Rautela said: ‘‘We are concerned about the damage to riverbeds. We’ll have to find a middle ground where development and river protection could coexist.’’ 

‘‘It will be our utmost effort to maintain a balance between development and ensure that it doesn’t affect our rivers,’’ said chief minister Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri at a press conference here last week. All that can be said is the efforts should have begun two years ago when the hydel projects began. From now on it will be an uphill job trying to save the Alaknanda.

A recent study conducted by the Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute on the Ganga has revealed that due to increase in water temperature and erratic rainfall, some inland fishes which breed mainly in the middle course of River Ganga are now coming to the upper course of the river for breeding. 
The study titled ‘Assessing the impact of climate change on inland fisheries in river Ganga and its plains in India’ revealed that the minimum and maximum temperature throughout West Bengal has increased from 0.1 to 0.9 degrees Celsius in the last 40 years and as a result some of the carp fishes like Rohu (Labeo rohita), Katla (Catla catla) and Mrigal (Cirhinus mrigala) have changed their place of breeding. Mr Manas Kumar Das, a scientist of the institute, said usually carp fishes breed in the months of June and July, but, as a result of the rise in water temperature and low rainfall during the monsoon period, for the past few years they have been breeding in the months of February and March. Moreover, the breeding period has also extended from 60 days to 110 -120 days during this period. Between 1996-2005, the average annual rainfall in West Bengal has decreased, but the amount of rainfall during the month of September -October has increased. 
Experts feel that for fishes to breed in a congenial environment there is a need for adequate rainfall and since they are not getting that in the middle and lower course of the river, they are shifting their geographical position. As a result there has been a decline in fish production in areas falling under the middle and lower course of the river Ganga. 
This has adversely affected the livelihood of fishermen residing in these areas. They also claimed that the state will experience a 3.5 to 4.5 degree average increase in temperature by the year 2080 and that a holistic approach is needed to minimise the effects of global warming.