Now, saints and sages have tightened their belts to save the holy Ganges river. Noted environmentalist Prof Gurdas Agarwal is on fast for the last ten days, opposing Nagpala project in Lohati Nagpala, Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand. Now, Prof Agarwal will continue his fast in New Delhi. According to Agarwal, as the Tehri dam is already there, there is no need to construct more dams. People should watch the continuous flow of river Ganges, he opines. 

There is need to go deep into Prof Agarwal's views on the dam. The holy river is deeply revered by the masses. There is urgent need to maintain the purity of the river as in absence of it the people's sentiments would be hurt. Even Guru Baba Ramdev is opposed to any big constructions at the cost of existence of the holy river. If the Central government wants to sacrifice the holy river for meeting its energy needs, then it would be better that it give final shape to the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement even though it is not practical to link this issue with the nuclear agreement. All out efforts have to be made to save the river Ganges. 

There is more loss than profit in constructing dams across the river Ganges. The biggest concern is that after construction of the dam, the purity of the Ganges water is under question. Ganga Raksha Manch, organised at Kankhal the last days, under the auspices of Swami Ramdev, was participated by Shankaracharyas, acharyas of different peeths and Hindu organisations who took pledge to save the river Ganges from further pollution. In the Madhya Pradesh capital, Bhopal, on Monday, the sages decided to launch a campaign to save the river Ganges from pollution and other problems. Govt should heed to the demand of Swami Ramdev to declare river Ganges a national heritage and to form National Ganga Authority.