The petition of saving the Godavari river brings forth the concern of the depletion of the river and the possible extinction of the river in the near future.

The Godavari serves many purposes but its importance is made clear when viewing from a religious/cultural and an environmental point of view. As mapsofindia.com states the religious importance; “The Godavari River is regarded as holy by Hindus and there are various religious spots on the riverbanks. The river has been revered as a particular site of pilgrimage for a considerable period of time. A number of eminent individuals, including Baladeva (5000 years back) and lately Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (500 years back) have dipped in her waters to offer prayers. The Godavari is also regarded as Dakshin Kashi (Rajahmundry) or Dakshin or Southern Ganges. The Pushkaram Fair is organized on the riverbanks. Countless people have a sacred bath in the holy waters of the river to wash off any misdeeds. It has been mentioned in the myth that the famous mentor Gautama stayed on the Brahmagiri Hills, located at Trayambakeshwar with his wife Ahalya. The sage kept the store of rice in a granary. At one time, a cow came into the granary and consumed the rice. Once the sage attempted to drive the cow out with Durbha grass, it died. The sage wished to save himself from the wrongdoing of "Gohatya". He offered prayers to Lord Shiva and urged him to fetch the Ganges to cleanse his abode. Lord Shiva was satisfied with the sage and emerged as Triambaka and fetched the Ganges River. As the Ganges River was taken down by Sage Gautama to Trimbakeshwar, the river is named here as Gautami. The river is also called the Godavari since the river assisted Sage Gautama to wash away his misdeeds.”

Alongside mentioning the environmental importance; “The delta of the Godavari River is home to the Coringa mangrove forests and they are the second biggest mangrove development in India. A portion of this has been acknowledged as the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary, which is famous for its reptiles. The sanctuary is also home to a broad range of crustaceans and fishes. These jungles also function as impediments for windstorms, cyclones, and surges and waves hence safeguarding the villages close by. The Krishna Godavari catchment area is one of the principal nesting locations of the imperiled Olive Ridley Turtle. The Godavari ranks as the second biggest river in India following the Ganges.”

“The Godavari is India's second-longest river after the Ganga and third largest in India, drains about 10% of India's total geographical area. Its source is Trimbakeshwar, Nashik, Maharashtra. It flows east for 1,465 kilometers, draining the states of Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha.” as quoted by sciencedirect.com. The river is a middle stage river so it is responsible for erosion and deposition to form small areas of nearby land with a steady or aggressive flow. This is a river that is one of the largest in the country yet it has been shrunken down to a seasonal river with some areas drying up in the summers and others being turned into lakes. The river is mostly monsoon-driven and has huge fluctuations in water level between monsoon, pre-monsoon, and the winters. 

How did we get here? How did such a massive river be turned into a seasonal river and a polluted seasonal river? 

To answer these questions we have to figure out how pollution occurs. According to RainwaterHarvesting.org 82% of the river pollution is done domestically or by the residents near the rivers and 18% is done industrially. So the river is being polluted constantly and the reason for that is deeply rooted in how conventional it is to do so. Rivers flow, it's not rocket science, it's common knowledge and that’s what makes them so polluted. Once the waste is dumped into the river it's not anyone's problem to deal with it, that waste is never going to be seen again in that area and everyone takes advantage of that. A Lot of the river's color is brown in most areas and that is thanks to the effluents dumped into the river by the 72 industries in the Patancheru Industrial area according to RainwaterHarvesting.org. This river has been a constant victim of industrial pollution as it runs through India’s 2nd and 5th most industrialized states according to Buissnesstoday.in. 

The increasingly rapid rate of Pollution has led to “the crop yield has suffered terribly. Before industrialization, the land’s crop yield was 40 bags of paddy per acre and is now a mere 10 bags. Toxic metals in the soil have contaminated the crops, penetrated animal milk, and affected human health. Incidence of cancers has also sharply risen, including leukemia in young boys, lung cancer in non-smokers and liver cancer. Medical experts attribute these increased rates to high water pollution. The polluted water has also seeped underground, contaminating groundwater, and the surrounding soil is contaminated due to acidification”. As stated by rainwaterHarvesting.org 

Now that the issues and the causes have been outlined, how are we meant to help clean up this mess of a river? There have been numerous attempts to do so since the late 1980s to the early 2000s the results were definitely fruitful but were not long-lasting. That's where we enter the scene. Since we live in a democratic country we can voice up and make use of the Swachh Bharat Mission which was originally launched in 2014 and is still active today with the sole aim to make India a more sustainable country by cleaning up the mess left behind by the previous generations. If we are loud enough to get the attention of the media we can divert the attention of the government towards the Godavari river situation and make use of the mission to get companies to clean up their act and properly dispose of their waste.