{"id":20033224,"date":"2020-05-08T12:30:23","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T07:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=33224"},"modified":"2021-02-01T21:40:06","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T16:10:06","slug":"in-multimedia-will-a-resurrected-yamuna-stay-alive","status":"publish","type":"photo_story","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/in-multimedia-will-a-resurrected-yamuna-stay-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"In multimedia: Will a resurrected Yamuna stay alive post-lockdown?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Hindu mythology, Yamuna is the sister of Yama, the god of death and resurrection. The 1,376-kilometre-long Yamuna river from the Himalayas to Allahabad \u2013 where it meets the Ganga \u2013 has clearly been resurrected due to the absence of industrial pollution forced by the Covid-19 induced lockdown all over India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The river that flows through India\u2019s capital was just as clearly dead before the lockdown. With the central and state governments now planning how to ease restrictions and restart factories, the fear is that pollution issues may get the short shrift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But every disaster is also an opportunity to rebuild better, and a reminder of just how polluted the Yamuna was before the lockdown may be what the policymakers need to ensure that they do not repeat their mistake of failing to implement pollution control laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the lockdown, people driving on one of the bridges over the Yamuna in New Delhi always had their windows closed to keep out the stench. They could hardly believe that this river once supported a whole community of fishers, some of whom still live on her banks because they have nowhere else to go, and struggle to make a living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of New Delhi\u2019s Yamuna bank slums also house migrant fishers from other states, with Bihar and West Bengal taking the lead. The men join the same struggle for fish while their wives and daughters work as domestic help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Industrial waste foams over the Yamuna waters near the Okhla barrage in New Delhi as fishers seek a catch in the middle of it all [image by: Richa Singh]<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pappan Kashyap is from a traditional fisher family that still lives on the Yamuna bank. \u201cThere are hardly any fish in the Yamuna these days,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s better during the monsoon but still not as it used to be ten years ago.\u201d Kashyap now works as a diver for the police, a job that has involved fishing dead bodies out of the murky waters. He is especially proud of his nephew, who has won the President\u2019s Award for saving several children from drowning.<\/p>\n\n\n