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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 2015)
ASIA / PACIFIC March 2, 2015 THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3 Indian river, protected by a curse, faces the modern world By Tim Sullivan The Associated Press HAREH, India — For centuries, it was a curse that saved the river. It was a series of curses, actually — a centuries-long string of unrelenting bad news in the rugged, hidden corner of northern India’s industrial belt. There was an actual curse at first, a longheld belief that the Chambal River was unholy. There was the land itself, and the more earthly curse of its poor-quality soil. And above all there were the bandits, hiding in the badlands and causing count- less eruptions of violence and fear. But instead of destroying the river, these things protected it by keeping the outside world away. The isolation created a sanctuary. It is a place of crocodiles and jackals, of river dolphins and the occasional wolf. Hundreds of species of birds — storks, geese, babblers, larks, falcons, and so many more — nest along the river. Endangered birds lay small speckled eggs in tiny pits they dig in the sandbars. Gharials, rare crocodile-like creatures that look like they swaggered out of the Mesozoic Era, are commonplace here and nowhere else. Today, tucked in a hidden corner of what is now a deeply polluted region, where the stench of industrial fumes fills the air in dozens of towns and tons of raw sewage is dumped every day into many rivers, the Chambal has remained essentially wild. But if bad news saved the river, good news now threatens to destroy it. The modern world, it turns out, may be the most dangerous curse of all. Sages and bandits The fears that shaped the region go back more than a thousand years, to when sages said the Chambal (the term refers both to the river and the rugged land around it) had been cursed and villagers whispered that it was unholy. In a culture where rivers have long been worshipped, far- B SURVIVAL OVER CONSERVATION? A bridge is seen under construction on the Chambal River near Sagarpada in the western Indian state of Rajasthan in this April 30, 2014 file photo. A narrow 250-mile stretch of the Chambal was declared an official sanctuary in the late 1970s, closing it to everyone except longtime villagers, approved scientists, and the handful of tourists who made it here. But with India’s economic growth came troubles that threaten the Chambal and its wildlife: polluting factories, illegal sand mining, and fish poach- ers who hack at gharials with axes when the animals get tangled in their nets. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File) As India modernized — as mers avoided planting along the river’s banks. British rule gave way to inde- “People always said things were pendence, and a modern nation different in this area,” says a began to take shape — the laborer working along the Chambal remained a place apart, a Chambal River on a hot afternoon. feared region where politicians He is thin, with the ropy toughness seemed more like criminals and and the distrust of outsiders so where, in most villages, bandits common here. He gives only his were the true power. first name, Gopal. “People,” he “We were so isolated for so long,” says, “were afraid to come.” says Hemrudra Singh, a soft- A few centuries later the bandits spoken aristocrat with a crumbling arrived, men who hid in the maze family fort overlooking the of riverside ravines and kept Chambal River from the village of outsiders away for generations. Bhareh. He understands that They were the last true protec- isolation well. Until 10 years ago, tors of the Chambal, it turns out. Bhareh could only be reached by For hundreds of years, the boat during the monsoon season. outlaws ruled the labyrinth of Only in the late 1990s did life in scrub-filled ravines and tiny the Chambal begin to change villages along the river. Spread significantly. Ancient dirt paths across thousands of square miles, became paved roads, prying open the Chambal badlands is a place villages that had been isolated for where a dirt path can reveal a centuries. tangle of narrow valleys with 100- The bandits’ local political foot-high walls, and where a bandit patrons were driven from power. gang could easily disappear. Their foot soldiers were killed in The bandits’ power — rooted in shootouts with police, and their caste divisions, isolation, and hideouts were forced deeper into widespread poverty — was the ravines by the spread of new enormous. Countless govern- roads. The last famed bandit, ments, from Moghul lords to Nirbhay Gujjar, was killed by British viceroys to Indian prime police in 2005. Today, cellphone towers, motor- ministers, vowed to humble them. cycle dealers, and satellite TVs are Countless governments failed. everywhere. New businesses and new schools have opened, ushered in by years of Indian economic growth. Farmers struggling with the poor soil now have fertilizers and tractors. In so many ways, that has been good news. Poverty remains wide- spread across the Chambal, but there are more roads now to get crops to market, and mobile phones to call the doctor when someone gets sick. Unemployment remains rampant, but there are occasional new jobs. With the good, though, came troubles that threaten the Chambal and its wildlife: polluting factories, illegal sand mining, and fish poachers who hack at gharials with axes when the animals get tangled in their nets. As India’s population and economy grows, more people are moving closer to the river. Suddenly, the Chambal was no longer synonymous with lawless- ness. Instead, it meant cheap land and untapped resources. Quickly, people began to come. And almost as quickly, the problems began. The new curse The garbage multiplied. So did construction projects near the river and, with them, industrial pollut- ants. Torn plastic bags now some- times blow through the ravines, and small stone quarries dump refuse into creeks that feed the Chambal. In 2007 and 2008, more than 100 dead gharials washed up on riverbanks — perhaps 25 percent of the world’s wild gharials at the time. While scientists have never been able to pinpoint the cause, and the population has grown back to a degree, most experts believe pollution introduced a toxin into the river. “In the old days, there weren’t many people here to interfere with the river,” said Dr. Rajiv Chauhan, a scientist and Chambal River expert with the India-based Society for Conservation of Nature. “But with the bandits gone, the Continued on page 5 Tu Phan Call for: Refinances Purchases Offering: FHA/VA/Conventional Mortgages NMLS # 81395 MLO # 7916 12550 S.E. 93rd Avenue Suite 350 Clackamas, OR 97015 (503) 496-0531 <tphan@alpinemc.com> <www. alpinemc.com > Better health here for you Think you’re an organ and tissue donor? Not if you haven’t told your family. Delivering physical, behavorial health and dental health care for over 230,000 children, families and individuals on the Oregon Health Plan in the Portland Tri-County area. Together we are Talk to your family about organ and tissue donation. 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