No one can cross India

Paul Salopek,

National Geographic’s most versatile writer.

In early 2013,

started the originally planned seven-year hiking trip,

(※ Due to the impact of the epidemic, the time may be extended)

He will walk 34,000 kilometers,

across four continents.

Paul Salopek arrived in India at the end of 2018 and began a 3,900-kilometer walking journey.

But he said,

In the past 7 years of hiking,

the environmental problems encountered anywhere on the earth are

incomparable. India’s water crisis is on par.

Written by: Paul Salopek

India, Rajasthan,

We walked through the Thar Desert under the scorching sun,

sweating profusely ,

We were dirty and dark,

The locals mistook us for wandering entertainers,

so they asked us a ridiculous question:

"Can you do magic?"

But the answer is, yes, we have "magic",

And everyone has it,

< p> The magic is hidden in the water.

In the desert state of Rajasthan, women struggle to fetch precious water from a well.

Photography: JOHN STANMEYER

The ocean accounts for about 71% of the earth’s area;

The human body accounts for about 70% of water.

The ratio of water in the human body and the earth,

seems to have reached some wonderful coincidence.

We were born on a planet full of water.

We are water-dependent animals.

A couple lies on a wooden boat on the banks of the Teesta River in West Bengal, a local wedding custom.

Photography: JOHN STANMEYER

Water,

It is everywhere, but sometimes it is invisible.

The ocean accounts for 97% of the earth’s total water;

The polar regions and glaciers lock up about 2% of the water;

Only 1% of liquid fresh water can be For human beings to live on,

But even this 1%,

We are still wasting a lot——

The country in front of me, India, < /p>

Exactly.

I have been hiking for 7 years.

No environmental problems encountered anywhere on earth

can be compared to the water crisis in India.

Chemical waste dumped by Indian factories along the Yamuna River (the longest tributary of the Ganges) has formed "foam icebergs".

Photography: GIULIO DI STURCO

India, the second most populous country in the world,

is home to 1.3 billion people.

India,

originated from the Greek "indos";

derived from the Persian "hind";

produced From the Sanskrit "sindhu" -

means river.

A country named after "water" actually has the most serious water resource problem in the world.

Today,

70% of India’s freshwater resources are polluted.

About 600 million people live with polluted water sources;

By the end of this year,

21 major Indian cities will soon run out of groundwater;

(Including New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, etc.)

By 2030,

40% of the population will not have access to sufficient drinking water.

※The data comes from the National Research Institute of India (NITI Aayog)

Sagar Island in India, where the Ganges River connects to the Bay of Bengal, is considered a sacred place of worship. Groups of stray dogs hang out with garbage on the beach.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY PETE MCBRIDE

I have been hiking in the flood plains of northern India for a year and a half and canoeing on river after river. There are hundreds of rivers in the country, and each of them, according to Hinduism, is sacred and even worshiped as a god.

But what is the real status of these "sacred rivers"?

Farukkhabad, India, is a city in central Uttar Pradesh, India, on the right bank of the Ganges River.

Photography: CALEB CAIN MARCUS

Indus River: The River of Rivers

The Indus River,

originates from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau;

p>

Huge, soft, and endlessly flowing;

The basin covers more than 1 million square kilometers;

The nurturer of ancient civilizations;

India and Pakistan A lifeline for millions of farmers in the country.

Boatmen have been carrying people and food across the Beas River, a tributary of the Indus River all year round, but now it is shrinking.

Photography: JOHN STANMEYER

A 25-year-old boatman on the Beas River

Photography: JOHN STANMEYER

I am looking for in Punjab Indus River (Punjab means "the land of five rivers", referring to the intersection of the five major tributaries of the Indus River: Jhelum River, Chenab River, Ravi River, Beas River, and Sutlej River), but I quickly got lost in the intricate industrial farm. The so-called confluence of the five major tributaries became a maze with no explanation. Could it be that the spectacular water body of the Indus River has disappeared?

In Bathinda, Punjab, a coal power plant that had been operating for 43 years was shut down in 2017. While providing electricity for irrigation, Bathinda has been covered in coal ash all year round.

Photography: JOHN STANMEYER

Later, I finally woke up. We are already in the Indus River! During our weeks-long search, the Indus River was always by our side. However, its water has been diverted, released, channeled, and dispersed, turning into countless canals, pipelines, dams, and ditches. Human power has forcibly divided the vast water body into capillaries as complex as blood vessels. The ancient and huge Indus River itself has long been broken and changed.

Resham, a 59-year-old carpenter from Punjab, has his hands deformed due to arthritis. Doctors said this may be caused by long-term exposure to chemically contaminated water.

Photography by JOHN STANMEYER

Betwa River: Sand Miners

Walking eastward for several months,

passing through Madhya Pradesh and the North Bang,

Beside the slow brown flow of the Betwa River,

I met the sand miners.

Dressed in rags and thin, they

dig the riverbed with shovels and excavators,

and most of the sand mining operations are illegal.

People use heavy machinery to dig sand from the river bed

Photography: JOHN STANMEYER

Indian sand is highly profitable,

boosting the construction industry and even The prosperity of black market transactions;

At the same time, it also destroys aquatic habitats and interferes with hydrology.

(※ A United Nations study calculated that human demand for construction sand is growing, reaching 40 billion tons per year. This number is twice the total natural replenishment of river sediments around the world)

Women in a village in India carry bricks on their heads. They carry 200 bricks on their heads every day, each weighing 32 kilograms.

Photography: JOHN STANMEYER

The Betwa River was stripped down to bedrock,

The rainy season is even more unpredictable,

Floods The flooding is becoming more and more irregular.

People dug thousands of small ponds

to collect rainwater and irrigate the dry land.

During the hot season, a tributary of the Ganges River dries up near Haridwar, India.

Photography: GIULIO DI STURCO

But the local government made a dramatic attempt to divert the entire Ken River into the Betwa River to replenish its poor water flow. (Ken River, one of the major rivers in central India) In addition, India has set aside US$2 billion to implement this controversial plan: India intends to connect 30 major rivers through 15,000 kilometers of concrete canals to alleviate water crisis. But this project will be carried out on the basis that other places will be flooded. For example, once the project is implemented, the nearby tiger nature reserve will be flooded.

Ganges: India's Holy River

I passed by the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi.

Hinduism's holiest city was shrouded in brick dust.

Countless workers hit the old city walls with sledgehammers,

For a city beautification project,

Ancient buildings were razed to the ground,

Residents were evicted and compensated.

Houses, temples and narrow lanes in Varanasi's old city were demolished for a municipal beautification project aimed at making the Ganges more accessible to pilgrims and tourists.

Photography: JOHN STANMEYER

People use turbid river water to wash away their sins,

But the fecal bacteria in the river have exceeded the legal limit by 3,000 times.

A man washes away his sins in the Ganges, but the water nearby is mixed with marigolds, plastic garbage and excrement.

Photography: JOHN STANMEYER

The Hindu Kumbh Mela takes place every three years. Thousands of people cross the makeshift bridge at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers day and night.

Photography: JOHN STANMEYER

We were allowed to film this scene where the deceased will be cremated on the banks of the Yamuna River and the ashes will flow into the Ganges.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN STANMEYER

Over the years, the flow of the Ganges has been declining. Environmentalists place much of the blame on indiscriminate mining. Coupled with over-pumping of groundwater, groundwater levels in floodplains have dropped dramatically. There are more than 300 irrigation stations, hydropower dams and diversion weirs on the main stream of the Ganges. Counting all the tributaries, the number is close to 1,000.

Chemicals spilled from a tannery in Kanpur, India, into the Ganges River.

Photography: GIULIO DI STURCO

Large and small dams and weirs further divert the water of the Ganges. In addition, the climate is changing and the monsoon rains that replenish water are becoming less predictable. The Ganges River is facing an unprecedented and complex dilemma, and multiple governments have been unable to do anything about it.

Floods have occurred in the Gosi River for several consecutive years (the Gosi River is a river in China, Nepal and northern India that flows into the Ganges in the northeastern state of Bihar, India). People's homes have been destroyed, food has been flooded, and some people Suffering from liver and ascites due to severe malnutrition, and at the same time rebuilding their homes, the people in the disaster area were on the verge of collapse.

"I used to catch fish longer than my arm.

Now I am lucky to find fish longer than my finger."

Devi is a local fisherman. An experienced fisherman with 35 years of experience,

she knows that the "small fish residue" she catches now is far from enough to eat,

and is only suitable for "watching" in a fish tank.

A homeless boy fishes in Delhi's Yamuna River, the longest tributary of the Ganges.

PHOTOGRAPHY: GIULIO DI STURCO

"Our rivers are drying up,

our fish will never come back."

Devi shrugged tiredly and helplessly.

In 2018, a critically endangered Gangetic river dolphin was killed by fishermen in Birat Nagar.

Photography: BHIM GHIMIRE, AFP/GETTY

That day we walked through the Thar Desert in India. The sun was blazing, and we were dirty and dark. The locals mistook us for wandering entertainers and asked us ridiculous questions:

"Can you do magic?"

"Will there be a magic show?"

Magic show? Of course there is -

It's just this magic,

We call it the "Great River Disappearance."

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