Buried by mining waste, river returns from brink in Rajasthan

Kota (Rajasthan): Environmentalist Bitthal Sanadhya was roaming near the Labhakho and Peepalda areas of the Dabi forest range in Rajasthan's Bundi district when he was told by a forest ranger that the place was a river buried by debris from illegal mining sites.

Stunned by the revelation, Bundi Jal Biradari president Sanadhya -- who draws inspiration from Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Rajendra Singh -- was driven to revive the river, a tributary of the Chambal known locally as the Aeru.

Armed with GPS images of the illegal mining sites and the buried river, he approached Rajasthan High Court in 2018 and filed a PIL to revive the Aeru in the region.

An eight-kilometre stretch of the Aeru, which covers 40 kilometres through the Bhilwara and Bundi districts before merging into the Chambal, had been buried under debris from illegal mines.

The Aeru originates from Tilaswa Mahadev in Bhilwara and passes through six villages before entering Bundi at Lamakhoh.

For years, suspected mining mafia illegally mined stones and slabs in the Aeru, turning the river into a dump yard.

"The ranger's response when he said it was part of the Aeru river buried under mining dump stunned me," Sanadhya said.

"Since then, I devoted myself to bringing the river back to life," he added.

Following a five-year battle, the high court last year ordered the Department of Mines & Geology to prepare an action plan for the removal of the mining waste from the river and allocate funds for its implementation.

Complying with the order, Bundi collector Akshay Godara allocated Rs 10 crore from the District Mining Foundation Trust for removing the waste earlier this year.

Work on the river revival project, beginning with the removal of the mining debris, started in June and it has already begun to pay dividends.

Crystal-clear water now flows over a more than two-kilometre stretch, with the hope that the Aeru will once again enrich the riverbanks as it had previously done.

At least 15 earthmovers and 25 dumpers have been deployed to remove the mining waste and 40 per cent of the work has already been completed, said Ajay Singh Gurjar -- a junior engineer of the water resources department, which is executing the cleanup drive.

The work is now stopped for the monsoon but it will be completed by November, he added.

Research scholar Suman Sharma, who is pursuing a PhD on the water crisis in the Kota-Bundi region, said it was a rare example of a "buried river" being revived by an environmentalist's passion.

Rivers are living entities and this fact is being affirmed by the courts, Sharma added.