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Saraswati no more a myth, water strikes at 7-feet depth
It was a joyous moment for the team working on reviving the Saraswati River in Yamunanagar district as they found strong water current on reaching a depth of seven-feet today.
This has raised hopes for the entire project, which was receiving criticism from various planks who termed it an RSS ambition.
Assembly Speaker Kanwar Pal Gurjar had inaugurated the excavation work of ‘Saraswati Revival Project’ at Rullaheri village in Yamunanagar district on April 21.
After inauguration, the District Development and Panchayat Department had undertaken digging work in two-and-a-half-km area. Water struck at nine points when the creek of river was being dug at Mughalwali village on Tuesday.
“The water is potable, fresh in taste and sweet,” said Deputy Commissioner SS Phulia, after a visit to the Mughalwali village.
The delighted people of the village offered prayers to Goddess Saraswati and distributed sweets amongst themselves and workers involved in the digging work.
District Development and Panchayat Officer Gagandeep Singh, who is coordinating the Saraswati Revival Project, said the river length in Yamunanagar district would be 55 km.
Earlier, plan was to dig the river till seven feet deep. However, now, they were planning to dig it till 10 feet deep for good natural flow of water. The river would pass through 43 villages of the district.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has already announced Rs 50 crore for this project.
The credit to bring the Saraswati River on ground goes to 88-year-old RSS veteran Darshan Lal Jain. He had formed Saraswati Nidi Sodh Sansthan in 1999 and since then, has been struggling for its revival.
“Some people thought it to be a mythological fantasy but water found at 7-feet -deep in its creek has proved that the Saraswati River is flowing below the earth,” said Darshan Lal Jain.
The river originates from Adi Badri in Yamunanagar. It is believed that the river passes underground through Kurukshetra, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad and Sirsa districts before entering Rajasthan and Gujrat.
The DC said the project would prove to be a milestone in the development of this area as it would promote eco-tourism, pilgrimage tourism, water conservation and improve ecological balance.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had already conducted excavations under Saraswati Project since 2003 at following sites:
(i) Adibadri, District-Yamuna Nagar, Haryana
(ii) Thanesar, District Kurukshetra, Haryana
(iii) Bhirana, District- Fatehbad, Haryana
(iv) Hansi, District- Hissar, Haryana
(v) Baror, District- Ganganagar ,Rajasthan
(vi) Tarkhanwala Dera, District- Ganganagar, Rajasthan
(vii) Chak 86, District- Ganganagar,Rajasthan
(viii) Karanpura,District- Hanumangarh Rajasthan
(ix) Junikaran, District- Kachchha,Gujarat
(x) Khirsara, District- Kachchha, Gujarat.
However, several studies including explorations and excavations have been carried out both by the Government and non-governmental organizations along the palaeochannel, represented today by the Ghaggar river in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Some researchers have ascribed this palaeochannel to the Saraswati river mentioned in ancient Indian literature.
The excavation work at the ancient mounds of Binjore, District Ganganagar, Rajasthan during the field season 2014-1015 is in progress.
An expenditure of Rs. 27.00 lakh has been incurred for excavation at the ancient mounds of Binjore, District Ganganager (Rajasthan) up to March 2015.
This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge), and Civil Aviation, Dr. Mahesh Sharma in a written reply to an unstarred question to the Lok Sabha.
Source:
Excavation in search of Saraswati River
Detailed evaluation of data obtained from remote sensing, geophysical, isotopic and other studies by various workers have been instrumental in sorting out many of the earlier speculative inferences and unsolved aspects of Saraswati river. Yash Pal have traced the palaeochannel of this river through Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. They found that its course in these States is clearly highlighted in the LANDSAT imagery by the lush cover of vegetation thriving on the rich residual loamy soil along its earlier course. According to their findings, the river disappears abruptly in a depression in Pakistan, instead of in the sea, an observation shared by a few others also. But, digital enhancement studies of satellite IRS-1C data launched in 1995, combined with RADAR imagery (from European Remote Sensing satellite ERS-1/2) could identify subsurface features and thus recognize palaeochannels beneath the sands of Thar Desert. These channels are seen to extend upto Fort Abbas and Marot in Pakistan and appear in a line with present dry bed of Ghaggar . This river continues as Nara River in Sindh region and opens into the Rann of Kutch. Another study of satellite derived data has revealed no palaeochannel link between Indus and Saraswati confirming that the two were independent rivers; also, the three palaeochannels, south of Ambala, seen to swerve westwards to join the ancient bed of Ghaggar, are inferred to be tributaries of Saraswati/ Ghaggar, and one among them, probably Drishadvati. The latter disappeared along with Saraswati due to shifts of its feeder streams from Siwalik and Aravalli ranges as well as due to the onset of desertification of Rajasthan
Geophysical surveys carried out by the Geological Survey of India to assess groundwater potential in Bikaner, Ganganagar and Jaisalmer districts in western Rajasthan desert areas have brought out several zones of fresh and less saline water in the form of arcuate shaped aquifers similar to several palaeochannels elsewhere in the State.
That these subsurface palaeochannels belong to ancient rivers has been confirmed through studies37 on hydrogen, oxygen and carbon isotopes (d2H, d18O, 14C) on shallow and deep groundwater samples from these districts. The isotopic work has also indicated that there is no direct headwater connection or recharge to this groundwater from present day Himalayas. Though the antiquity of these waters and probable links to ancient rivers are thus established, the subsurface palaeochannel route beneath the desert sands obtained from hydrogeological investigations, however, differs from that derived through satellite based studies
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Saraswati – the ancient river lost in the desert