GUWAHATI: At an award ceremony held in Guwahati recently, Padma Shri awardee Jadav Payeng touched upon the issue of reviving the Bharalu River.
Payeng passionately spoke about the intrinsic relationship between humanity and nature, emphasising the dire consequences of an imbalance between the two. He expressed his deep concern over the alarming degradation of the once pristine Bahini and Bharalu rivers, which have now transformed into heavily polluted drains.
Payeng further made a fervent appeal to the authorities and citizens to extend whole-hearted support and cooperation in order to achieve the goal of reviving the Bharalu River.
Such an endeavour would help restore the disturbed ecosystem caused by pollution in the current "Bharalu drain" and mitigate the threat to public health arising from contaminated groundwater due to polluted rivers.
Payeng is an environmental activist and forestry worker from Majuli, popularly known as the Forest Man of India. Over the course of several decades, he has planted and tended trees on a sandbar of the river Brahmaputra turning it into a forest reserve. In 2015, Payeng was honoured with Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award in India.