From a clean river to a drain, now it is flowing again as Barua river

Dr. Utkarsh Sinha

The story of revival of Barua river in Lalitpur district of Bundelkhand,  is very exciting and inspiring. When social organizations, local people, public representatives and administration came together, and the Commissioner of Jhansi Division has also directed all the concerned Gram Panchayats to form river conservation committees and monitor it.

Barua river originates from Karenga village and joins Jamni river near Evni village. To extract sand from this river belt, the mining mafia did haphazard digging and broke the check dams built on it. As result the flow of water in the river started ending. About four years ago, Parmarth Samaj Sevi Sansthan, along with the local community, planned a Shramdaan (voluntary work) for the revival of the river and drew the attention of the local public representatives and administration towards it. Saplings were planted on both sides of the river under MNREGA and check dams were constructed at many places.

Due to strictness of administrative officers, sand mining was banned in the area. After about four years of hard work, a gurgling stream of water appears in this river, which people had never even imagined.

Next to the revival of the river, now preparations are being made to appoint Barua Chowkidar for its protection and monitoring. Jhansi Division Commissioner has directed that river water conservation committees should be formed in all the gram panchayats through which this river passes. The Gram Panchayat in which the river flow is obstructed will be punished. Along with this, instructions have been given to the police of Talbehat and Purakala police stations to take strict action against those mining sand from the river.

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Roopdas, a local farmer of Evni village says that the revival of this river has increased the greenery in the area, where earlier the river was holding water for 8 months., But after this stream flow, today the stream is holding water for twelve months, due to which the nearby water sources also got a lot of benefit. And , even in summer the water sources are not drying up.

Dr. Sanjay Singh, national coordinator of Jal Jan Jodo Abhiyan, says that this tributary of Jamni is the lifeline of 14 villages of six gram panchayats. After everyone’s efforts, now this river is flowing with adequate flow even in this summer season. Till now the rivers have been turning into drains but here the drain has been converted into a river. This is a big achievement. This is a model for the entire country. Everyone needs to learn from the story of revival of Barua River.