The vanishing rivers of Delhi

Natural Heritage

Giving up old ways is not always beneficial, there must be a middle ground,” says Sohail Hashmi, writer and filmmaker, though he has associated himself with many other things that stimulate his intellectuality.

Hashmi is a geographer by qualification and identifies himself as a history buff. In his talk, recently at India Habitat Centre, he baffled the audience with his interpretations on a book called Shahajahanabad.

 “The Jamuna flows into Delhi from higher altitudes between fairly thick soil of alluvial on either bank of the Jamuna, but as you move west from the Jamuna very soon you begin to encounter rocks and then you enter into the Aravallis,” said Hashmi.

Between these rocks there is a whole lot of natural ponds that were created and all this water would seep into the river. One can view these ponds, well-formed in monsoons and sometimes even now, if one goes in and around the Jawaharlal Nehru Campus, Mehrauli and Indian Institute of Technology.

Down Aurobindo Marg there are several small streams that form, especially when it rains. These streams that we recognise today as nallahs were fresh water ponds and natural way of rainwater harvesting, Hashmi explained it well through the map of Old Delhi. “Before the Safdarjung flyover came up.

This water would continue flowing down Aurobindo Marg and before Lodi Gardens came up this water would enter Khairpur Village and then continue flowing through the channel one sees inside Lodhi Garden across Bharatingar. This flowing stream would then join the nallah that runs behind Dyal Singh College and join the Jamuna behind Nizammudin Railway Station,” says Hashmi.

In the modern map he showed how the modern architects have built roads that cut across the flow of the river.

Hashmi said, “There is no provision for diverting these waters or creating channels for this water to meet  the Jamuna and that’s how gradually we killed these tributaries of the Jamuna.”

“In a period painting of Tughlakabad one can see a stream flowing across the fort, now it the Badarpur-Mehrauli road following the route the stream would take.But our modern builders have overlooked this fact and they have done all they could do to build over these historical constructions which were used for rainwater harvesting,” he said talking of several baolis built during the times of the Mughals.

Hashmi also discussed about the bridges built in Delhi and how they connected important roads. Colonies built post-independence like Sarojni Nagar and Sewa Nagar were built over running fresh water streams and clean fresh nallahs of Delhi were turned into sewage drains, he rued.

“The Delhi Jal Board in 2006 recognised 400 such tributaries according to INTACH and today suddenly 200 names have disappeared from the database?” exclaimed Hashmi.

A believer in old ways of saving water, he adds that modern constructions may hide the filth from the eyes of Delhizens but untreated sewage will continue to empty into the Jamuna. Even if the French Company Sewage treatment plant works efficiently through thousands of millions of litres of sewage collected, these ponds will continue to fill toxins into the sub soil.”

Hashmi further added at the end, “Veolia Water of France won the bid to revamp the existing water supply, at a cost of Rs 652.32 crore for 15 years. Why not make channels underground instead of taking more space above the ground and the remaining nallahs can be cleaned and saved.

And one does not need to have a French company to do this. But alas! we want ‘Make in India’ but not ‘Made in India’.”