Last year’s Holi was an eye-opener for me. As I was driving out of our community housing gate, I read on the notice board, “This Holi’s collections will be spent on buying seven-and-a-half tankers of water.”
Driving on, I stopped at the grocery shop at the end of the lane leading to the main road, and asked the shopkeeper to deliver a jar of water to my house. This was his reply, “Sure, but I think you should stock some extra jars. I hear that the water source is drying up in Godavari.” Coincidentally, I was on my way to the National Botanical Garden in Godavari.
It took me hardly 15 minutes to reach the famous garden, as I was driving from Thaiba, which is half way to there from Satdobato Chowk on the Ring Road.
Since I was there early, at around 10.00 a.m., not many people were around, and I enjoyed a rejuvenating half-hour, stroll around; invigorated I was by the clean air fragrant with the refreshing scent of many blossoms. But, soon, the garden was full of people, many groups of men and women, some in large numbers, some small. Anyway, it wasn’t such a great feeling anymore. It struck me that it’s people who always spoil things.
Godavari is one of the few remaining contemporary natural heritages within easy reach of the capital’s dwellers. But, from what I hear, it’s all going to change very soon. Real estate developers, many of them, have set their sights on the relatively pristine locality in and around Godavari, and it won’t be long before one of Kathmandu’s most valuable assets becomes another concrete jungle.
As it is, with the housing developments (I hate to use this word, development, in this context) already spreading their businesses to places like Thaiba, the laid back refreshing environment has already changed for the worse, with an ever-increasing number of motor vehicles, large and small, crowding the roads. It is telling that, on the very same Saturday, a car company had set up a stall at our housing colony with a couple of its brands on display for exchange-on-the-spot, test drive, and so on.
Soon, very soon, more housing companies will begin construction in nearby areas, and these will consist of hundreds of homes on previously fertile fields, and even on lovely verdant hillsides. Soon, very soon, there will be so much of concrete around that groundwater reserves will dry up completely, because rainwater will not be able to seep into the ground and recharge the natural underground reservoirs as has been the case for centuries. It was once said that water is never a problem in the Godavari area, and that it is so pure that one can drink it without a thought. But, I have lived in Thaiba for four-five years now, and for the first two years, when the colony had few inhabitants, there was no water problem at all. Now, a couple of tankers are required everyday to fulfill water requirements.
Godavari is one of the few remaining contemporary natural heritages remaining that’s within easy reach of the capital’s dwellers. But, from what I hear, it’s all going to change very soon.
Talking about tankers, the road from Satdobato Chowk to Godavari has always been full of water tankers plying to and fro continuously for the last few years. God only knows what the authorities were doing in giving them so much leeway in collecting water from Godavari, because they are most definitely also to be blamed for depleting the once ample supply of pure unpolluted water of the capital’s most pristine and unspoilt region. Not only that, they are responsible for a large part of the air pollution, as well.
Godavari, the name itself is so poetic, so pure. Godavari, where the nation’s biggest and best-kept botanical garden is located. Godavari, where one feels serene and one with nature.
Godavari, it needs to be saved, it deserves to be saved. We give so much importance to sites that international organizations deem to be world heritages, what about giving as much importance to sites that we Nepalis ourselves deem to be national heritages? Godavari is one such heritage that must be declared to be so, and steps taken accordingly to save it from the devastation of so called development.
Save Godavari.
