Chapter chat - "Innum Pirakadha thalaimuraikaaga"

Interlinking of rivers - few rivers and many crores.

I'll be sharing about the books or interesting topics that I come across in books [ க‌டைசிப்ப‌க்க‌ம் ?! இது ஒண்ணு தான் குறை.].

I had this relation with the rivers at a level of a school kid running to buy 2 India river maps [ we linked them by making too many mistakes in the paper .. [காவிரிக்கு கீழே எங்க‌டா கோதாவ‌ரி ஓடுது..ஸார்.. காதை விடுங்க‌ ஸார்..வ‌லிக்குது] and 'checked' graph sheets for sheets. The inter-linking of rivers comes in the media limelight on and off. What do we actually know about this issue [ any subject in that case :) ] ?

S.Thedore Bhaskaran [ பாதிரியாரா?! ] - I knew this personality as a film historian with his books on cinema [ Chithiram Pesudhadi, Sivaji Ganesan and Em Thamizhar seidha padam ]. Of late, I came to know that he is an ecologist [ ய‌க்கா ?!] too.

Some points to ponder [ taken majorly from the book ]

* Is it easy to join rivers just like that ? Has it been done anywhere else in the globe ? Was it successful or a failure as introducing new alien water creatures in Andaman islands.

* The Indian rivers flow at different heights, in the first place. The power needed to elevate the water level is more than the power expected to be produced by the inter-linking.

* The cost estimated for this project is.. have some ice water..Rs.560000 crores [ to be precise 559999 and the 1 c from Rajini ].

* Have they joined 2 water resources anywhere else in the world ? Have you come across the effect of South and north Aral sea [ lakes ] in Russia ? One lake is completely drained .

* It's wrong to think that the river water is wasted by ending up in the sea. It's the cycle of biodiversity [ ப‌ல்லுயிரிய‌ல்].

* We do have water treaty with Bangladesh and that will be affected if we really get into this project. Also, we know the status of the treaty between TN and KA on the existing water distribution [ without any alteration in the path ].

* We failed in water channelising methods and the native methods of storing waters. Lakes have turned as Lake view apartments and villas.

* The existed polluted rivers will spoil other river by combining them.

* What happened in Alwar district - Rajasthan ? Few effective NGOs constructed Jathos [ mud check dams for rain harvesting ] and it benefited the most dry district of Rajasthan. Remember the forceful condition of rain water harvesting yielded some good results in TN [ rain ille enga harvest panna ? ].

This is just a drop in the ocean from the book written by Theodre Bhaskaran [ இன்னும் பிற‌க்காத‌ த‌லைமுறைக்காக‌- what a beautiful title ?! ]. In fact he is inspiration for drawing [ அப்ப‌டியும் சொல்லிக்க‌லாம் :) ]about the house sparrows in the competition. He clarified that planting enormous number of trees can't compensate or create a forest because a forest is not just a group of trees and cannot be man-made. You can feel the same when you think about the days you spent in any of those hill stations. Can it be recreated ?

I am not favouring him blindly - at least, he shows the other side of the coin. It's better for us to read more about these topics and know the real things instead of following the speech of Rahul Gandhi or Gnani.

So next time, when a politician or a celebrity talks about interlinking rivers, think before spending time in their speech. Media cherishes as long as the public is kept in the dark - better make our people follow the Vijay TV program "Rajini's pilgrimage to Babaji caves". [ It's like Veerappan is to Nakkeeran and Rajini is to Vikatan group ]

I recommend this book - "Innum pirakkaatha thalaimuraikkaaga" by S. Theodre Baskaran from Uyirmmai padippakam [ Rs.120/- ].

:)

Toto.