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Environment
Ganga Expressway:
A Road to Prosperity or Doom?
by VK
Joshi
Connectivity is a key to development. Unless the places are well
connected by roads a country cannot call itself well developed. In our
countriy roads had come up pretty early. There are records of road
connections between Taxila (now in Pakistan and Patliputra (Patna)
during the Mauryan Empire. In the 16th century Pashtun emperor Sher Shah
Suri had captured most of the north India and he built a fresh road
along the right bank of Ganga between Agra, his capital and Sasaram, his
home town and laid the foundation of the Grand Trunk Road (GT Road).
This road had seen plenty of ups and downs in the history and politics
both. Today it is south Asia's oldest and longest road (2500 km) linking
Sonargaon in Bangladesh with Peshawar in Pakistan.
Thus even the history clearly demonstrates the significance of roads.
And no doubt there is an urgent need for a direct link between the east
and the west Uttar Pradesh. That is why the present U.P. government has
launched the 853 km long Ganga Expressway project at a cost of Rs 40
thousand crore linking Ballia in the east with
NOIDA in the west U.P. As per an announcement of the U.P. government 36
tehsils of 19 districts will be benefited from this project.
This project will be constructed on the embankments on the left bank of
the river Ganga. It may be noted that the left bank of Ganga River is
more devastated by floods. Hence millions of flood affected will get
relief through this project and the farmers of these areas will get the
opportunity to procure two crops, which in turn will improve their
financial status.
10 major development areas, each of approximately four
to five thousand acres will be developed in the Express-way Project.
These areas will be equipped with infrastructure facilities like
electricity, water, roads, health services, educational institutions and
housing. In the development area, industries will be established in 10
thousand acres. Through five hundred large-scale industries six to seven
thousand persons will gain employment while three lakh persons will be
directly or indirectly employed in medium and small-scale industries.
The local population gets maximum opportunities of employment in these
industries, for this technical/commercial educational and training
institutes will be established in the development areas in fifteen
hundred acres. 20 ITI level, 10 Polytechnic level and 5 Engineering
level institutes along with Medical College and various Paramedical
schools will also be established providing employment to 20 thousand
persons as well as benefiting 20 thousand students. 5 hundred agro-based
large and small-scale industries will also be established which in turn
will directly benefit the farmers. It is expected that seven to eight
lakh persons will either reside or work in these areas in the next ten
years. To serve them, commercial establishments, shops, hotels, bus
stations, truck terminus, buses and taxies will also operate which in
turn will provide employment to one to two lakh persons.
Well all this sounds like a dream come true for the densely populated
Ganga-Yamuna Doab.
Development of a state is the responsibility of the government. However,
it is also imperative that the government strives for a sustainable
development and not just mere development. Whether the current project
of Ganga Expressway is sustainable or not needs to be analyzed. To
achieve that it is time to know some bare truths about the natural
factors that have been operating on the land across which the project is
envisaged.
The inter-fluve or the land between the major rivers Ganga and the
Yamuna is known as Doab. The rivers Ganga, and Yamuna and their
tributaries like Chambal, Tons, Kosi etc have been since ages
painstakingly bringing the rock flour ground by them while hurtling down
the mountains. This rock flour according to the grain size is either
sand, clay or silt. The rivers toiled hard to deposit layers after
layers of this material to form the present day's granary, the Doab.
Today Uttar Pradesh is what it is because of the hard labor carried out
by the rivers, which still continues.
Apart from the need for an expressway there has been a dire need for
flood control measures in the region through which the super highway
will pass. The government's statement categorically says that the left
bank of the river gets more devastated by the floods annually. That is
why the need for a bund all along the left bank of the river is
stipulated.
Question is why more floods along the left bank of the
river, compared to the right bank?
Ganga makes a huge arc between the point it emerges out of the Siwalik
ranges near Haridwar in the northwest and Patna on the east with a
convexity towards southwest. The Yamuna runs more or less parallel to
the Ganga till they meet at Prayag. These rivers apart from making the
giant arc seldom flow in a straight course, rather their courses are
sinuous all along.
To a layman, the two banks of the Ganga appear similar. However, Prof.
I.B. Singh an authority on Ganga Plains and an internationally renowned
earth scientist of Lucknow University says that boreholes drilled near
Panki, on the right bank and Unnao on the left bank of Ganga show a
peculiar sub-surface setup. At Panki the top 300 m of the sands and
clays recovered from the borehole originated from the Himalayas, while
underneath them is found the 'maurung' or coarse red sand which has
originated from the older Aravali ranges on the south of Ganga. On the
other hand, the top 1500 m pile of sands and clays recovered from the
borehole at Unnao have come from the Himalayas and below that is the 'maurung'
from the southern hills. Thus he says the left northern (left bank) side
of the river 'sank' down by about 1200 m. In other words the Ganga flows
through several such lineaments or weak planes formed by the past earth
movements. The epicenter of the notorious Bihar earthquake of 15
January, 1934 was also in one of the lineaments followed by the Ganga
says Prof Singh.
The river, therefore, apparently calm and flowing forward, eager to meet
the sea at the Bay of Bengal has a turbulent history. Since the Indian
Plate is constantly moving underneath the Asian Plate, stresses always
keep building in the sub-surface. These lineaments unfortunately become
release points for such stresses.
Ganga plains are divisible into 'Bhaber', 'Terai', 'Bangar' and 'Khader'
areas. Each one of them has a characteristic says Prof Singh. Thus Terai
and Khader are famous for lush green vegetation and agriculture. Be it
rich sugarcane growing area of Budayun or the guava belt of Unnao, are
all situated on the Khader of the Ganga.
Khader's greatest contribution is to make the Ganga flow perennially,
says Prof Singh. He says 'Ganga will not dry up even if the Gangotri
Glacier melts, but if Khader stops feeding ground water to Ganga, it can
go dry'. In addition Khader is one of the richest sources of groundwater
to the farms and habitats developed on the surface.
Khader is crossed by several rivulets which drain into Ganga in this
region, says Prof Singh. They act as a buffer during the floods when
excess water escapes and takes the brunt of the floods.
Ganga is not merely a huge drain that flows through the plains of U.P.
It is a mighty river system says Dr Vibhuti Rai a Professor of Geology
in the Lucknow University and he too repeats that the difference in the
levels of the two banks is because of the constant 'rumblings' in the
sub-surface or neotectonism activated by the imperceptible movement of
the Indian Plate towards the Tibetan Plate.
Rivers have a peculiar character of scouring the convex side in case the
stream makes an arc and sediments brought by the river are deposited on
the concave side. In the giant arc of the Ganga this is exactly what the
river has been doing since thousands of years. The right bank or the
convex side being higher is scoured as a result often cliffs are formed.
The river deposits its load of sediments more on the left bank, making
it more fertile.
A road that too on a bund all along the left bank of the Ganga would be
a catastrophe, says Vibhuti. He says the Ganges is not just an
artificially created stream, rather it is a river system joined by
several streams. The bund therefore will have to have N number of
bridges all along to let the tributaries debouch in to Ganga. In
addition Ganga has a flood plain of five to seven kilometers on the left
bank.
A river has a normal channel which it occupies during the lean period.
Then there is a wider channel which it occupies during the monsoon. The
spill over water or the floods spread beyond the wider channel. Usually
the flooded part forms a sort of flood pathway of the river. Thumb rule
says that the flood pathway should be left undisturbed. We know that we
are mighty and we can tame any river. But what we are not trying to
understand is the fact that taming a river along a length of few
kilometers near a habitation is different than taming the entire 853 km
length. The moment the bund comes up it will act as a barrier between
the natural slope of the ground on the left bank and stop rain water
from reaching the river. As it has happened in many towns, like Lucknow,
the bunds of Gomati River cause water logging every year during rains,
because they do not permit water to flow to the river. Likewise the
Ganga Bund would act as a check dam.
Now imagine the scenario after a few years, the bund on the left bank
and the raised right bank both would 'channelise' a river that had been
swinging through the plains like braids of a maid. The river would
naturally deposit its sediment load in its channel only, as it would not
be able to splay out. The stream will gradually choke under the load of
its own sediment. This would not only upset the hydrodynamics of the
river but will also cause the river water to find escape routes via the
tributary streams and many times the nearby habitations would be
flooded.
Shashi of Uday Pratap College, Varanasi and A.K. Dwivedi of Gorakhpur
University have carried out some studies about the aftermath of the
Ganga Expressway Project and published their views in the Current
Science. As per their projection 1,047,000 x 8 x 7 cubic meter fertile
agriculture land of doab will be usurped in creating the bund along the
left bank of the Ganga. They question, is it pertinent to sacrifice
fertile land for the road when the food grain crisis is raging
throughout the world? In order to make the bund of this magnitude lots
of earthwork will be required. Naturally the contractor will excavate it
from the nearest point. The excavated ground thus will have giant
depressions which will be filled by rain water. Such ponds will be open
invitation for mosquitoes and with eastern U.P. already reeling under
vector borne diseases, these will add to the misery.
The industries they say can produce bread but can not grow grains. This
region has been a granary of U.P. since times immemorial converting it
in to an industrial belt may not be prudent!
Shashi and Dwivedi have also raised the problem of disposal of effluents
generated by the new industries and townships along the bund. The
waterlogged tracts along the river will lead to alkalization of soil
thus the fertility of the remaining land will be deteriorated beyond
redemption.
Well the problems are many, but the government has already taken a
decision, therefore it is not likely to roll back. However, Shashi and
Dwivedi have recommended a revival of river transport. This would be a
cheap link at least between Bulandshahar and Ballia. It will not involve
any earthwork. On the other hand it would help in keeping the Ganga
clean. Dr Vibhuti Rai sites example of Yantze River of China. Instead of
being a river of sorrow today it fetches millions of Yuan from the
tourists as it offers one of the best river cruises.
Ganga has an active flood plain of 5-7 km. This flood pathway looks like
an ocean of water during rains. In case construction of a bund with a
road atop is the only recourse left to 'develop' the region, the flood
pathway should be left untouched says Prof I.B. Singh, because the might
of the river is beyond the power of engineering. It can be tamed for
some time but not for all times to come.
No doubt industrialization and urbanization of Khader will usher an era
of prosperity in the region, but a concretized Khader may stop rainwater
to percolate down to subsurface depths. A situation in which Ganga may
even dry up says Prof Singh.
Prof Singh suggests that if construction of a bund all along the Ganga
with a road atop may be done on the Bangar region as it will have
minimum impact on the environment.
The future appears to be too scary to imagine motor vehicles running on
the dry bed of Ganga and nearby habitations getting buried under mounds
of sand like Thalakkaddu in Karnataka!
June 13, 2008
Image under license with
Gettyimages.com
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