Wular is Calling; The Living Veins of the Earth: Where Water Flows, the Earth Breathes

A. R. Matahanji

“The streams of our valley are not drains; they are the living veins of the earth. When plastic clogs them, it is not just water that stops flowing — it is breath itself. Every bottle and bag we throw away returns as a flood, a poisoned field, or a dying lake.”

The water system of the valley is a complex web of ancient canals and natural streams, designed over centuries to distribute the mountain runoff to the thirsty paddy fields. To me, these were the veins of the earth, carrying the lifeblood of the region. But as I and a small group of volunteers from the Mohalla Initiative began to map the local flow, we found the veins were clogged with a synthetic cholesterol.

 We started at the head of the main canal, where the water was diverted from a larger river. Here, the flow was strong, but even at the source, the plastic was present. It floated on the surface like a colourful, toxic scum. As the canal moved through the various Mohallas, the density of the waste increased.

 “Every bridge is a trap” Gul Kak said, pointing to a low-slung stone arch. The volunteers waded into the water, armed with long poles and rakes. We began to pull the debris from the underside of the bridge. It was a gruelling, disgusting task. We found layers of plastic that had been compacted by the pressure of the water into a solid mass. There were bags, bottles, old clothes, and the heavy, sodden diapers that I had come to loathe.

As we cleared the blockage, the water behind it surged forward, dark and foul-smelling. It was a release of pent-up filth that had been stewing in the stagnant heat.

I watched as the liberated trash headed downstream, towards the next village, and eventually, towards the Wular lake.

“We are just moving it from one place to another” one of the volunteers complained, wiping sweat and grime from his forehead. “No” I said, pointing to the bank where we had piled the extracted waste. “We are taking it out of the system. We will dry this, sort it, and use what we can for the Eco-bricks. The rest we will dispose of properly. Every piece we pull out is one less piece for the lake.”

We spent the entire day working our way down the canal. We found that the worst areas were near the informal dumping sites that had grown up along the banks. People found it easy to toss their household bags into the water, thinking the current would take their problems away. The ‘away’ was always someone else’s backyard, and eventually, the common heritage of the lake.

In one particularly narrow stretch of the stream, we found a complete blockage. The plastic had formed a dam so effective that the water was overflowing the banks, flooding a nearby field of young rice. The farmer was standing by the edge, looking in despair at his drowned crop.

 “This is what plastic does,” I told the group. “It doesn’t just sit there. It changes the geography. It destroys the livelihood of our neighbours. This flood isn’t an act of God, it’s an act of us.” We worked for more than three hours to break the dam. When it finally gave way, the roar of the water was like a cry of relief. The farmer joined us, his initial anger turning into a quiet gratitude. He promised to join the Mohalla Initiative and to stop his own family from using the canal as a bin.

As the sun began to set, we reached the point where the stream entered the larger wetlands surrounding Wullar. The sight was sobering. Despite our hard work, the amount we had collected was a tiny fraction of what remained. The shoreline was a mountain of plastic, a testament to decades of neglect.

“It’s too much, son,” Gul Kak said, looking at the vast expanse of waste. “We are only twenty men with rakes. There are millions of people in this valley.” We are not just twenty men” I replied, though I felt the weight of the exhaustion in my own bones.

“We are a signal. We are showing that the veins can be cleared. We are proving that the ‘simple practice’ at home leads to a cleaner world outside. If every Mohalla did this, the lake would be clear in a year.” I realized that I needed to document this. I needed to use my academic skills to create a report that couldn’t be ignored. I needed to map the ‘hotspots’ of pollution and present the data to the authorities. The Mohalla Initiative was a success, but it needed the support of the law and the infrastructure of the state to truly turn the tide.

We returned home, our clothes soaked and our hands calloused. I sat at my desk and began to draw the map of the veins. I marked the blockages, the dumping sites, and the areas of greatest risk. I felt a sense of clarity. The problem was no longer an abstract disaster, it was a physical reality with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

I began to write my manifesto. It would be a blend of the personal and the academic, the story of my notebook and the science of the polymers. I would call it ‘The Restoration of the Blue Mirror.’ The team clears a major plastic blockage in the canal, preventing a local flood and gaining new allies. I began to draft a formal manifesto to bring Mohalla’s success to a regional level.

The Author, hailing from a Wular Fringe Area of Bandipora, is a writer and can be reached at saltafrasool@yahoo.com