A river flowed through the inaccessible hills of the Nahargarh forest of Jaipur, the cultural capital of the country. When the Athunia dam built on the Nahargarh hill used to split, waterfalls from the picturesque Amber Hills were fountained. While settling Jaipur, Maharani Sawaai Jai Singh brought water from the Bandi river by breaking the Haramada hill. 200 years ago, Maharaj Ram Singh of Jaipur had constructed a dam to prevent the unforeseen waters of the dense hills of Nahargarh. This water falls off the waterfalls and first filled the 200 feet deep trough. And then, flowing through the 50 km long stream of Dravyavati river and crossing the entire city it joined the Dhoondh river. The clean stream of Dravyavati flowed for twelve months. The city’s groundwater was full of water. The mountains of Nahargarh were green throughout the year. And no living being ever remained thirsty.
Illustration of ancient water management of Jaipur, Aamer Maavatha
But many dams of the Jaipur Estate got broken in the devastating flood of July 1981 and since then no one has taken care of them since then. Due to the terrible ignorance of the water bodies by Congress governments from 1947, all the embankments of the Dravyavati broke down in the flood and the river took a ghastly form. Even after the flood, due to the irregularity, ignorance, and corruption of the Congress governments, a living river was transformed into the ‘Ganda Nala’/disgusting drain. And lost her name and started being called “Amanishah Nallah”. The river which once was the beauty of the city and the canals coming out of which provided the water to houses of the Jaipur now became a dark spot on the face of the beautiful city of Jaipur by becoming the Amanishah broomstick filled with stinking mud.
In so many years, Congress did not even consider it worthwhile to pay attention to the court decisions, committee reports, concerns of environmental protectors and the problems of the city, and the river’s area became the haunt of encroachments, dirt, wastes, smells and bad habitats. Jaipur’s maximum garbage, dozens of drains, slaughterhouse’s waste and dangerous waste of chemical factories used to fall in the Amanishah Nallah. It was compulsory to put a napkin on the nose while passing around the Amanishah Nullah. At one time the city had forgotten that a river also flows in Jaipur. Whose name is Dravyavati. The situation was that the formal name of a stream of Amanishah drain was “Ganda Nala“.
The new look Dravyavati
But after the elections of 2013, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan’s BJP government, Vasundhara Raje, waited to save this unfortunate river of Jaipur. And after the full test of the river area in 2015, the Tata Group was assigned the Dravyavati Rejuvenation Project. On the war-footing, the work of the revival of the river’s 47 km flow area began. And today, more than 90 percent of the work has been completed and the Dravyavati river has come in its glorious form. The dream of thousands of environmental lovers who have struggled for the revival of Dravyavati for decades has come true. The 16km delta riverfront has been already inaugurated by the BJP government. And the last phase of work is going to be completed in a few months.
Ex-Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje inaugurating the River Drip
The Multidisciplinary Project costing Rs 1676 crores has been developed on the lines of Sabarmati Riverfront of Ahmedabad, Gujrat. It has 5 STPs for clean water. In which every day 17 million liters of water will be cleaned and drained into the river. Along with it, approximately 20 thousand trees have been planted on both sides of the 47 km long river. There is a 40 km track for jogging and cycling, which will clean the environment of the city. Boating in this river will also be there. Removing all the encroachments of the river area which happened during many years, the natural flow of the river and the flow way of the flood in 1981 has been completely secured, so that Jaipur can easily outstay any major flood. The Amanishah Ganda Nalla, which had become a stain in the city of Jaipur, is now flowing in the form of the Dravyavati river in the glory of Jaipur.
Dravyavati river passing through the city of Jaipur
In the last 4 years, there has been a lot of development work in Jaipur, in which the revival of the Dravyavati river is a historical work. Due to Congress governments, this Ganda Nalla had become a curse for Jaipur. But the BJP’s will power has created a clean river.
Sundarati river enhancing beauty of Jaipur
Also read,
जयपुर में जिंदा हुई एक मृत नदी – द्रव्यवती
Ayushman Bharat has achieved a paradigm shift in healthcare: Nirmala Sitharaman
India’s Defence Budget: Where It Stands In The World
क्या आपको पता हैं देश के विकास के लिए ये 16 बड़े प्रोजेक्ट
पिछले पांच साल में केंद्र सरकार ने किए हैं ये 13 बड़े काम
