Friday the 13th is the day G D Agrawal chose to begin his historic fast-unto-death in protest of the government’s plan to build four dams on the River Ganga between the Gangotri Glacier and the Himalyan town of Uttarkashi. Local demonstrations of support were held around the country, including this one organized here in Dehradun by the People’s Science Institute which a team from Karuna Vihar turned out for.

The young researchers and community organizers from PSI stood on Rajpur Road, Dehradun’s busiest street, explaining the reason for the protest to various passers-by and asking them to sign the petition which will be taken to the Prime Minister. The response was heartening. Many people were willing to stop and listen, and most who did decided to sign in support of a ban on any construction along the Ganga. But will it be enough? There is so much political will behind the dams, and so much need/greed for electricity in the cities that it seems unlikely that one man’s resolve, courageous and principled though it is, will be sufficient to turn the tide.

G D has acted both out of religious conviction and scientific understanding. He is convinced that building the dams could be catastrophic, not only for the communities in the immediate vicinity, but for the entire region should there be an accident.

And an accident seems almost certain given the slipshod methods of construction and the callous disregard for safety norms. On a recent visit, Ravi and Kanwarjit Chawla, a civil engineer, peeked into one of the tunnels which has been built to divert water from the lakeformed by damming the river and found it was leaking copiously, to no one’s apparent concern.

The fast began this morning and will continue, G D says, until the construction comes to an end or he dies of starvation. The Ganga is like our mother, he says. What is the point of living if our own mother is tied up and bound?

You can sign the petition and add your voice to the thousands of others who say no to the destruction of our national heritage: http://www.petitiononline.com/tpsy2008/petition.html