It is hoped that by the end of 2021, the waters of Mansi Ganga in Goverdhan, near Mathura, will not only look pristine but actually deep cleaned and suitable for drinking. All thanks to Dwarka resident Manoj Jha, who runs NGO Smriti Trust that has been promoting Madhubani art since 13 years now. The Mansi Ganga cleanup is the first project of this nature by the Trust.
Jha undertook this mammoth task early last month, and his efforts are already showing. The foul smell emanating from the river that had made the life of local residents a hell, no more exists. “The sludge removal process is on, and will take 11 months to clean the water body and make the water potable,” says Jha, who is using the Vedic Cownomics method for the cleanup. This method combines cow dung, cow urine and a herbal solution containing about 125 herbs; the solution is developed by Vedic Cownomics Pvt Ltd. “We have a pool of 1,008 herbs, and the solution was developed after studying the water body along five parameters viz study of longitude and latitude of the water body to find its actual location; photographs and videos of the water surface; problems in the area like weeds, mosquitoes, algae, colour, water viscosity and smell etc.; the kind of vegetation growing here and observing the water sample in a transparent container,” says Madhukar Swayambhu, co-founder of Vedic Cownomics Pvt Ltd.
“This knowledge has come to us from our scriptures, the Vedas, that go into the details how we must live in harmony with nature. Vedas consider the elements of nature — air, water, fire, earth — as living ecologies with self-healing mechanism that has to be revived to tackle ecological and environmental issues of today,” says Swayambhu, an IT professional, who started Vedic Cownomics in 2015, after having worked in communication networking for 25 years. For his environment-friendly technique of cleaning water bodies, he was awarded the title ‘Water Hero’ in October 2019 by the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
The beginning
Jha, who has been visiting Goverdhan every month, for the last 11 years for parikrama, was perturbed to see the decline of the water body. “Mansi Ganga has religious significance, and is considered as pious as Ganga, and seeing it going from bad to worse was painful,” he says, adding that back in 2008, the then central government had declared the Mansi Ganga as a reserve lake and even allocated about `23 crore to revive it, but nothing happened. “I was aware of Vedic Cownomics technology, and considering the holy significance of Goverdhan, I wanted to implement it here,” he says.
Jha got in touch with NP Singh, Vice Chairman of the Mathura Vrindavan Development Authority, about cleaning Mansi Ganga. “We told him we don’t need any funds, just a go ahead from him. Singh then put us in touch with Pandit Khemdchand Sharma, Chairman of the Goverdhan Nagar Panchayat, and we were given permission. The work began on December 8. It’s not even a month, and the foul smell that was a permanent feature in the area is already gone,” informs Jha. Every day, a solution prepared by Vedic Cownomics is being poured into the water body. “The water is checked after every 10 days. This method will not only clean the water, but rid it of insects and weeds,” says Jha.
This initiative has won the approval of environmentalists like ‘Green Man’ VP Baghel, who says, “Using herbs, cow dung and cow urine is the best possible way to clean water. These all have medicinal properties, and do not contain any chemical. You can call it bio-filtration, if you wish.”
Other projects
The technology has already been used in cleaning up 10 water bodies, including the lake at Jheel Wala Park, Sector 3, Rohini Institutional Area and Prasad Nagar Lake in Karol Bagh. Both projects were
undertaken by Win Fluential Technology in association with the Delhi Development Authority. “The Kudikunta Lake in Kondapur, Hyderabad, is also being cleaned up using the same technology,” informs Swayambhu.
Jha has now approached the Delhi Government for cleaning up the Najafgarh Lake, which he claims can be converted into the Thames River using the same technology. “We don’t want any funds from the government. We just want to clean it up,” he signs off.