Unforgettable moments

  Just after the close of Trans Himalayan trade from Johar valley, our traders suffered a great setback. Their future prospects related to restart of trade was completely shattered due to developing sever relations with china. Main concern was in terms of their income space. So these were the painful days. They had to decide what next? In the thinking process, majority of them preferred to look elsewhere for earning livelihood, some of them unwillingly chose to shift to their winter villages downwards Munsiari and were forced to adopt agriculture for which they were never prepared. Remaining families decided to settle in Munsiari villages and migrate to Johar valley. But there was a similarity in attitude and creativity. Johar valley bhotia tribe always dared to move beyond the cozy boundaries, which they inherited from ancestors. I wish to deliver the massage that our elders always faced the challenges courageously and conquered. Out of the doomed days one positive thing appeared that in the changed situation, people adopted various earning spaces. They focused in income growth and education of children, as elders had sensed the importance of knowledge power and new era of knowledge and technology revolution was bound to take place in wealth generation escalating future prosperity and advancement. This could be possible, provided there is education spread, facility provided by the government to some extent, creating positive attitude and mass awareness among the youngsters.

  In the process of know your native place!  during ninety’s,  we had been to Burfu village, our native place as after 1962 war, most of the old couples, women in particular decided to settle in munsiari area, young people were out of home for service and private jobs and children came out of villages for education, they  realized the need to shift to high Himalayan village to grow cash crops such as fapar(used in fast on religious occasions), oowa(high altitude product like wheat in lower areas), potato and sarso which high altitude harvest including growing herbs being sold in the market fetching high value. Besides earning they were enjoying climate which suited them most. It was obvious, rainy season of munsiari, was quiet boring and uncomfortable for them. In the changed circumstances, journey was inconvenient and lack of arrangements in comparison to what they enjoyed during trade with Tibet, as traders always took care of their senior member’s especially female comforts. I do admire females who realized need to come out beyond the comfort zone and created confidence and courage to be a partner in economic progress and making successful career of their children. They wanted to forget the past and work in a new environment.

   We stayed there for a few days and planned to visit Milam one day. At Milam we met people there, who were migrating regularly to Milam for cultivation and other income related job commitments. It was horrible to see the plight of village, once the largest in Almora district in terms of number of families residing and population, it looked almost deserted and destroyed village. Hardly a few families were migrating to Milam. We met late Uttam Singh Sayana a prominent person and herb grower, discussed with him about future prospect of earning in new space and development related activities where local people can also participate in Johar valley. Thereafter we decided to return village. Village bilju on way to burfu, is situated on sloppy land,. Biljugarh(bilju river) was always considered dangerous in terms of uncertain river behavior. Level of river increases after noon due to melting of snow. Some of the team members were far ahead and they had already crossed river. By the time we reached near the river which looked simple and easy to cross over was behaving in a different manner, color was dark, water level was threatening us, in the mean time team members who were on the other side of river, shouting loudly cautioned us to be careful while crossing the dangerous looking river. However we analyzed the situation and decided to start from a particular side, one by one. With great difficulty, fighting with hostile current of the river, we reached other side of river safely. I thanked god for escaping us safely. Miraculously there was no loss of life. Mean while what I saw, that, late Amar kaka, who, was the eldest member of our team, settled at Didihat after close of Tibet business, had shown his intense desire to visit our native place, accompanied us(although we had been visiting Johar valley regularly) was virtually weeping and telling me, in case of tragedy,  he would not forgive himself, truthfully it was a unforgettable emotional moment for me as it was a narrow escape from death. This made atmosphere serious for all for some time, therefore after relaxing for few minutes; we headed for our beautiful village Burfu.

  In our village we participated in sri Raghunath puja, we offered prayer, our immense faith and complete trust on lord Sri Raghunath for prosperous life and protection from any kind of harm in high Himalayan region, the most difficult and remote border area deprived of from basic amenities. An assurance for decades for necessary infrastructure by the government is like mirage for border people of johar valley. However, inadequate arrangement does not affect amazing zeal to live happily. Worship function was performed nicely. It was enjoyable, pahadi songs program was arranged by village boys in the evening. Amazing entertainment! Fabulous and memorable event! Motto –learn to be happy!

After spending some time in the village, we proceeded for Munsiari we had hardly travelled five kilometers rain started, it was becoming difficult for us to continue journey but we were supposed to reach Munsiari by evening as per our program, therefore no was option left but to continue the journey. Surprisingly density of rains increased; everywhere there looked to be water. Any how we reached Bagdyar, we took tea, other items, we had brought with us and took rest for a while again moved towards our destination. Elder members had already left our company as it was not possible for them to cover long distance with us. It was a start of the most difficult journey in my life. Every moment there was a danger of landslide, falling of big boulders, collapsing of temporary bridges and horrible sounds of Gorigarh(gori river) running just below the bridle road as if ,it is going to swallow us. There was no movement of people accept we four men. As we started down to rargaree(name of place) towards rargaree patal(forest) there was terrible scene about 10 mts of road was completely washed away, hardly one feet in width was left there  and boulders were falling from top side, we were terribly worried and thought, what to do? in the mean time boulders started falling from other side too, subsequently, where we were standing, we found road is about to slide down, just below of us, there was dangerous looking river, sounds of huge stones rolling down, colliding with each other, thus anticipating it will also merge in the river, we were minutes away from disaster, hence, there was no option left but to move immediately forward for the sake of god, stones stopped falling down for a while, anticipating gravity of situation, one by one we tried to cross the difficult stretch to avoid tragedy, thus we reached the other side with great difficulty. And took rest for some time without uttering a single word to one another in a udiyar(cave). It was a miraculous escape. Still it was raining continuously with more density; there was a sound of rains only, we realized death was almost near to us, a terrible experience! When I remember this unforgettable moment, I am frightened terribly and tremble even to day. With tremendous difficulties we reached Munsiari. It was a terrific day for all of us. Next day I heard the entire Munsiari-Milam road is badly damaged in many stretches of Milam Munsiari bridle road and movement of people is blocked. It took many days to clear for public movement.

D.S.Jangpangi

2nd May 2013

Holy ganga

       Water Pollution threatens its purity 

Religious and cultural significance of River Gange—Ganga begins at Devprayaag, the confluence of Bhagirathi and Alakhnanda rivers and ends at Bay of Bengal. According to Hindu culture and mythology Bhagirathi is the source of Ganga. Devotees have tremendous faith on Holy River which is worshipped as Goddess Gange maata(Mother). It is considered once you take bath or take a dip in Holy River, you get mokshya. Hence every Hindu wishes to visit the holy places and take bath in Ganga once in life to get mokshya.  My visit to Haridwar, during Kumbha mela in 1998, the huge crowd of pilgrims who came for holy dips in the Ganga and worship, was an amazing experience. Crowd management of the police and volunteer organizations was extremely commendable. Administration effectively supervised efforts of all departments who were responsible in successfully organizing this world famous and huge religious event. Recent tragedy in Prayag Kumbh is the result of total failure in crowd management by the police, administration and lack of coordination between the various departments who were deputed there. I observed, analyzed and came to conclusion devotees trust has to be honored. We realize immense faith of common people on goddess Ganga and lord Shiva is responsible religion to survive. Now there is a considerable demand from all segments of society to save this holy river from water pollution. 

  Besides religious aspect, it is has been a lifeline to the millions of Indians for centuries. They grew food, used water for irrigation, potable water,and extracted materials for housing and even for daily use they were dependent. This process is going on even today. It is the longest river in India and 2^nd greatest river in the world in terms of water discharge. From the historical point of view various imperial and provincial capitals were situated on its bank from the ancient period. Megasthenes was the first European traveler who mentioned about this holy river. Several times he described this in his writings and wrote that there are several rivers which are large and navigable. Fa Hien a Chinese traveler who visited India several times, 300years after the mauryans, admired about the elegant carving and sculptor work about Asoka’s palace and during his regime inhabitants were rich and prosperous in the entire river Gangatic plain and became the centre of successive powerful clans from the Maurya Empire to Mughal empire.

 Human greed has polluted the river to the dangerous level. It not only threatens human survival, but also other species. Ganga River which is the witness to prosperity, richness flourishing and rich traditional values, spiritual glow and smile of inhabitants of north Indians for many generations, is now crying for her own existence. We know, the disappearance of Mohan Zadora and Harappa civilizations, was the result of excessive exploitation of natural resources, resultant, natural disasters buried these civilizations. Are we waiting for such calamities? Situations indicate towards the eminent and inevitable danger, if immediate corrective measures are not taken by the government. There is a mention of Sarswati River in mythological books, if it was true, then disappeared? Obviously, reason is the same. Sustainable development, sustainable biodiversity was not applied by contemporary governments and powerful  inhabitants, as a result disasters buried civilizations not only once but many times.

 Environmentalists have been warning continuously, successive state governments of northern India and central government, about the danger level of water pollution which may ultimately invite devastation but in vain. In order to fulfill intense lifelong desire, the innocent devotees take Ganga Jal with them considering their homes will be purified after spraying holy water, but, they do not know it has lost its purity. What a pity!  We know, the holy river was ranked among the five most polluted rivers of the world in 2oo7, with fecal form levels in the river near Varanasi is more than 100 times. Although the Ganga action plan, an environmental initiative to clean up the river was carried on, but on account of corruption, lack of technical expertise and lack of planning, it was a major failure. We are depriving of our future generations from pollution free environment.

  In my opinion, there is no need of outside help for making our rivers clean, it is possible within our reach and resources provided we are sincere and honest to initiate the mission to clean. Municipalities, village panchayats( situated in the catchment areas of large rivers) and the administration must own the responsibility and ensure wastes of any nature whether it is garbage, waste water, dangerous chemicals released by the irresponsible factory owners and human waste is not discharged through sewer line in the holy river. There has to be strict checking mechanism to identify factories those are polluting holy river discharging dangerous chemicals in the river. There should be a provision to impose heavy capital punishment, if hotels, house owners situated near the river side are found guilty in accordance to norms; capital punishment provision has to be there with warning and immediate corrections. We wish illegal constructions near the river side are totally banned and mass plantations has be started to protect soil erosion as well as air/water pollution.  Illegal mining and stone crushing in the river bed should also be disallowed. Accountability of officers should be fixed. It is observed that all concerned organizations are suffering from sincerity and transparency deficit. They must know, we need to be environment friendly, pilgrim friendly and harsh towards norms violators.

  Indian Judiciary has taken excellent and strong decisions with regard to air pollution reduction in Delhi such as introduction of CNG on buses and other public utility vehicles compulsory and removal or shifting of factories from residential areas those were releasing poisonous gases and chemicals in the air, hazardous to public health, in spite of the fact there was stiff resistance from the owners and heavy pressure from political leaders of Delhi irrespective of their party affiliations.  They were delaying to implement court order ultimately court took serious note of non implementation and government was compelled to compliance court order. Here I wish to mention one cabinet minister during NDA government who as governor J&K took many admirable and pilgrim friendly decisions for the convenience of pilgrims and his contribution in order to make Delhi beautiful and pollution free is tremendously commendable. Although, he could not fulfill his dream to make Delhi visible among the best capitals of world, in terms of hygiene, slum free and pollution free. But due to political interference he was shown exit door. Hence there is an intense feel now that People-welfare oriented people are needed in the government. Clean Gange program initiated by environmental activists need support from all sections of the society and Judiciary. Since politicians always talk in terms of money not in terms of work to be accomplished within the time frame. They need to change their attitude, be environment-friendly in order to assist in clean rivers (originating from glaciers) movement initiated by many independent and volunteer groups.

Devender Singh Jangpangi 

Johar Sauka Tribe, Munsiari, Presently Haldwani 

15-02-2013.