The Yamuna river travels over 1200 km through several states of the country. Nearly 60 million people are dependent on the river as a water source for day to day living - washing, bathing and praying. Most of the clean water is stopped at the Wazirabad Dam leaving sewage and chemical waste material to go over into the next sector. The water past the Wazirabad dam is filthy black in color and the stench is unmistakable. People living on the banks of the river often fall sick as a result of waterborne diseases and suffer from various skin problems. The thriving forests, once the play ground for varieties of deer, antelope and other wildlife is now dead and barren land - the water, undrinkable and the non-existent level of oxygen in the water making the possibility for survival of marine life next to impossible.
The Yamuna Yatra is a 45-day walk or procession from the source of the river Yamuna in Allahabad to New Delhi to protest, to ask and to demand a cleaner river. Millions of rupees were recently allocated towards the clean up of the river, houses and temples on the banks were broken in the name of a clean-up, plans were made to 'seriously' look into the matter and it's been months, if not years that the level of pollution in the river continues to rise. The Yatra arrives in Delhi on April 15th to protest against the government and if all fails they 'will break the Wazirabad dam'.
