No respite from industrial effluents 'dumped' in Central Gujarat river: Probe sought

By A Representative
Alleging that untreated industrial effluents continue to be dumped in Mahisagar, one of the major rivers of Central Gujarat, well-known environmentalists Rohit Prajapati and Krishnakant of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (PSS) in a letter to senior officials of the state government have said, their spot inquiry suggests things have not changed despite the fact that they had brought the matter before the authorities in a letter dated November 14 with concrete evidence.
Addressed to Gujarat chief secretary Anil Mukim and officials attached with the state environment department, the environmentalists asked “the authorities to take prompt action and investigate the matter in utmost urgency through a technically sound committee of experts for a period of minimum three months with close monitoring on a daily basis.”
Providing evidence in the form of videos and photographs, which they took on December 13, the environmentalists in their letter, a copy of which has been sent to the Gujarat Pollution Control Board, said, samples taken by them a month ago in Mahi river in villages Kareli, Dabka, Mujpur, and Umaraya, taluka Padra, district Vadodara, 25 km from Vadodara, had suggested the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) was 170 mg/litre and Dissolved Oxygen (DO) 2.93 mg/litre, “which speaks of the disastrous damage by itself.”

Dec 13: Prajapati at Mahi river, as an activist collects sample

The letter said, the confluence of the Mahi river and the effluent channel at ‘J Point’ in the Gulf of Khambhat is in very close proximity to that of the Sabarmati river, which passes through Ahmedabad, and “carries high concentration of sewage and industrial effluent, continuously dumped into Gulf of Khambhat, round the clock, unabated.”
It added, “This confluence area pollution is particularly alarming and worrisome as we fear that the tidal activities in the Gulf of Khambhat drive the highly toxic and polluted waters inland at the estuaries of the Mahi and Sabarmati rivers, hence causing tremendous risk to the settlements, villages and towns in that region.”
The environmentalists believed, “This is the result of continuous and voluminous discharge of effluent and sewage over a period of three decades, which might form toxic sediments in the stretches along Gulf of Khambhat, particularly near the mouths of the river estuaries which may get agitated and flow inwards, up the river with the boar, during high tides.”

Comments

GreenTech Summit claims NCR as key green building hub, without pan-India comparison

By A Representative The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), under the Confederation of Indian Industry, held its GreenTech Summit 2026 in New Delhi, where industry representatives, policymakers and sustainability professionals discussed the adoption of climate technologies in India’s built environment.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Gujarat cadre to HDFC: When bureaucratic style hits corporate walls

By Rajiv Shah I was a little amused by the abrupt March 17, 2026 resignation of Atanu Chakraborty —a Gujarat cadre IAS officer of the 1985 batch who retired from the government in 2020—as chairman of HDFC Bank . Much of what may have led to his decision to quit this ostensibly high post—actually a non-executive, part-time role—is by now well known. I followed most of it online with considerable interest, partly because I had interacted with him umpteen times during my stint as The Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar from 1997 to 2012.

India has been getting its economic growth wrong for two decades, say top economists

By Jag Jivan* India's official GDP figures have misrepresented the trajectory of the world's fifth-largest economy for the better part of two decades, according to a major new working paper published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). It finds that India overstated annual growth by up to two percentage points after 2011 — and understated it during the boom years of the 2000s.

Beyond the election manifesto: Why climate is now a kitchen table issue

By Vikas Meshram* March has long been a month of gentle transition, the period when winter softly retreats and a mild warmth signals nature’s renewal. Yet, in recent years, this dependable rhythm has been disrupted. This year, since the beginning of March, temperatures across vast swathes of the country have shattered previous records, soaring to between 35 and 40 degrees Celsius in some regions. This is not a mere fluctuation in the weather; it is a serious and alarming indicator of climate change .

As India logs historic emissions drop, expert warns govt against 'policy blunders'

By A Representative In a significant development that underscores the rapid transformation of India's energy landscape, new data reveals the country recorded its largest drop in power sector emissions in 2025. However, a top power sector analyst has urged the Union Government to view this "silver lining" as a stark warning against continuing to invest in new coal, large hydro, and nuclear projects, which he argues could become "redundant" stranded assets.

Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque under siege: A test of Muslim solidarity and Palestine’s future

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* In the cacophony of Israel’s and the United States’ attack on Iran, one piece of news has been buried under the debris of war: Israel has closed the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to Palestinian worshippers during the holy month of Ramadan. The closure, announced as indefinite, affects the third most revered mosque in the Islamic world.

Fresh citizenship framework suggested amidst electoral roll concerns

By Kathyayini Chamaraj The ongoing exercise of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has raised serious concerns about the potential disenfranchisement of large numbers of citizens. In many instances, people are being asked to produce retrospective documents to establish their citizenship—documents that many genuine citizens are unable to provide. The challenge before policymakers is to identify prospective amendments to the Citizenship Act that would ensure that no legitimate citizen is excluded either from citizenship or from the electoral roll.

Search This Blog