Begins outreach programme involving people along the river In an effort to rejuvenate the Tamirabharani river that plays a critical role in the livelihood, culture and the economy of south Tamil Nadu, the Environmentalist Foundation of India (EFI) has begun an extensive outreach programme involving the communities living along the river. The NGO will adopt 37 villages from Papanasam to Cheranmadevi and will conduct weekend programmes for people from all walks of life. EFI founder Arun Krishnamurthy said the foundation wanted the communities living along the river to own it. “Though they are very emotionally connected with it, they seem to be in a slumber, like people everywhere are. However, our activities involving the residents work well. For instance, when we started the lake programmes in Chennai 10 years ago, people were quite hesitant to work on the lakes, now there are a lot of small groups coming together regularly,” he explained. The activities planned include garbage removing, wall painting, planting of saplings and their maintenance, conducting a river festival once in every six months. “We also plan to document the local ecology and help restore it in any way possible,” Mr. Krishnamurthy added. The Tamirabharani, which is the only perennial river that originates and ends in Tamil Nadu, is also the site of an ancient civilisation that excelled in education partly because of the surplus from agriculture. “Right now, however, it is in a pathetic shape and is running dry within 6 -7 months of the monsoon and for 4 -5 months in a year there is very little water or it runs dry,” said V. Suresh, national general secretary, People’s Union for Civil Liberties. In addition to the absence of integrated planning covering aspects such as quantum of water available and how it could be shared between industries and big urban settlements, the surface water of the river is also contaminated. “The ground water table has also depleted. In the last 20 years, the government and civil society have mindlessly been killing the lifeline of the grannery of the south. The maintenance of the river basin has been very poor leading to a number of cases being filed in the National Green Tribunal relating to sand mining, Mr. Suresh added.