[1]Devotees gather on the banks of the polluted River Yamuna to immerse idols of Hindu goddess Durga during the Durga Puja festival. Image by Burhaan Kinu. Copyright Demotix (24/10/12)
Yamuna [2], the only major river flowing through Delhi is deteriorating in health over the decades. In the recent Delhi Assembly elections major political parties mentioned Yamuna saving plan in their election manifesto.
South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People [3] (sandrp) blog analyzes these manifestos and suggests that the parties need to consult Yamuna's own manifesto [4], penned by two river experts, Himanshu Thakkar and Manoj Mishra, and edited by Ravi Agarwal and Till Krause:
A bilingual (Hindi and English) publication, combining the views of activists and artists, blurring boundaries between fact and the imaginary, it is an attempt to widen ideas around ecology, to re-territorialize it, and to move beyond binary narratives of catastrophe and untouched nature, to one of multidimensional reframings. The political parties can possibly benefit from it.