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good afternoon good to see such a big
audience I'm here with the man who has
inspired millions of Indians to work for
the environment and particularly to
clean up and save the fantastic
beautiful big rivers of India so I think
we will explore a little bit what
inspires you and then how you're able to
inspire others and then later we'll move
on to maybe the more practical issues
regarding how you can achieve such a
such a big big movement in in India but
let's start start there and how how you
have been inspired to to start working
for the environment
mmm good good afternoon everyone my
engagement with rivers and forests of
southern India started very early for me
when I was 8 9 years of age if I got
enough money to buy food for 3 to 4 days
I just managed this and disappeared into
the jungles by myself well it was a big
concern for those who bore me but I just
lived in the jungles and and when I was
there I did not experience this as some
kind of nature or natural beauty I just
saw it as a life larger than myself and
when I was 17 I floated down Kaveri
River for 163 kilometres for 13 days
waiting off the river living off the
river just an 4 truck tubes and a few
bamboos and the river is a life beyond
you and me people like you and may come
and go but these rivers have been
flowing for millions of years
and they must flow forever but such a
mighty life we've brought it down to its
knees
today the rivers that I saw at that time
50 years ago and the rivers that I see
today or just half of what they used to
be they say average depletion is around
44% but many rivers are well below half
and many of them which were
perineal for millions of years have
become seasonal rivers this year Kaveri
did not touch the ocean for three and a
half months it dried up 170 kilometers
inland the entire length of cavity in
Tamil Nadu between these two states
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu there is a big
war for water it's going on for last 25
years but the entire length of the river
is only 430 kilometers but it dried up
170 kilometers inland and the sad part
is when we did this painting competition
across the country in over 160,000
schools many children when we asked them
to paint the river they just painted
sand this is the experience of the
people and what why is that why are they
going so joyous agriculture what was it
happening see in India only four percent
of the river water is glacial or ice fed
rest is all forest fed forest fed
essentially means we have rains unlike
in Europe we have rains for only on an
average of 40 to 45 days across the
country which is our monsoon this 45
days of precipitation we are supposed to
hold it in the land for 365 days and let
it go in the river slowly if this has to
happen substantial vegetation has to be
there there is a serious removal of
vegetation not only in the form of
forests but also in the farmlands there
used to be vegetation for example in the
Ganga basin which amounts to 25% of
India's geography and 33% of India's
agricultural produce in the last 50
years we have removed 94 percent of the
green cover 94 percent this has happened
mainly because I know this well because
40 45 years ago I was into farming and
at that time when the new moment came of
green revolution where we started using
fertilizers for the first time chemical
fertilizers fertilizer companies openly
advised every farmer to remove all the
trees because fertilizer gets absorbed
by the
root system of the trees and it will not
produce ield for the crops so across the
country in the last 35 40 years a huge
depletion of green cover happened that
is the main reason why waters have
receded another thing is there is a
serious exploitation of groundwater
which is an inevitable consequence of
not having enough water in the rivers in
your video you said something like
people believe that water brings forests
but the opposite is more true for a
Springs water it is so it is there is
substantial science today to show you
that it is the tree cover which attracts
rain and right now we see that wherever
the rains happen in India the monsoon is
becoming so scattered though the same
volume of water is coming down in
principle in the last hundred years
there's not been too much variation in
the amount of water or the precipitation
coming down on the Indian subcontinent
but where it is coming down and what
patterns it is coming down has
completely altered mainly because of
lack of green cover and today there is
no more debate about it everybody knows
that it's a forests which draw water or
rain
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