Water is said to be the source of life on this planet and the people working day and night to conserve it is no less that superheroes.
Today let’s throw light on one such water conversationalist. Rajendra Singh is widely known as the Waterman of India. A title that he earned by offering his life to this mission of water conservation.
Rajendra Singh born on 6th August 1959 is a 62-year-old environmentalist who is an Ayurvedic medicine graduate and post-graduate in Hindi literature. After completing his studies, he joined government service in 1980, and started his career as a National Service Volunteer for education in Jaipur, from where he was appointed to oversee adult education schools in the Dausa district in Rajasthan. This is where he joined the Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS) initially formed with an intention to aid victims of a campus fire. However, in 1984 the whole organization was left to him this was that turn that lead him into this conversationalist world.
One thing sparked another and in the same year after his experience of working closely with people, frustrated by the apathy of his superiors towards developmental issues and his own inability to have a larger impact, he left his job. He sold all his household goods for Rs 23,000 and took a bus ticket for the last stop, on-boarded bus along with four of his friends from Tarun Bharat Sangh which took them to Kishori village in Thanagazi tehsil in Alwar district on 2nd October 1985.
Initially unsure, the villagers of neighboring village Bhikampura accepted him, and here they found a place to stay.
Alwar district which once had a huge grain market at that time was dry & barren after years of deforestation and the dropping of traditional water conservation techniques like building check dams or johad instead relying on modern exploitive bore wells.
At this point, he met Mangu Lal Meena a village head who twisted & encouraged him to work on “Johad”, earthen check dams, which have been traditionally used to store rainwater and recharge groundwater.
The area which was then declared “dark zone” because of its water scarcity was turned into a “white zone” in the next three years even after his partners parted their ways with the help of some local youth and distilling the Gopalpura Johad.
The forest department invited the NGO to take an active part in the park's management & Tarun Ashram in Kishori-Bhikampura bordering the Sariska sanctuary, became the headquarters of Tarun Bharat Sangha.
In 1986 Rajendra Singh started his first pada yatra (walkathon) through the villages of the area educating to rebuild villages old check dams.
Over time Rajendra Singh and his NGO filed a public interest petition in the Supreme Court, which in 1991 banned mining in the Aravallis. Then in May 1992, Ministry of Environment and Forests notification banned mining in the Aravalli hill system all together, and 470 mines operating within the Sariska sanctuary buffer area and periphery were closed. After building 115 earthen and concrete structures within the sanctuary and 600 other structures in the buffer in 1995 Aravri became a perennial river and was awarded the `International River Prize', and in March 2000. The Down To Earth – Joseph. C. John award was presented to the villagers by then president KR Narayanan. In the coming years, rivers like Ruparel, Sarsa, Bhagani and Jahajwali were revived, abandoned villages in the areas got populated and farming activities could be resumed once again.
In the coming years, TBS grew in numbers and built 4,500 johads in 850 villages in 11 districts of Rajasthan.
Rajendra Singh was awarded Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, Jamnalal Bajaj Award & Stockholm Water Prize. He also played a pivotal role in stopping the controversial Loharinag Pala Hydro Power Project, led a pada yatra (walkathon), with a group of environmentalists and NGOs, through Mumbai city along the endangered Mithi river in 2009, and did a parikrama along the banks of Godavari river, from Trimbakeshwar to Paithan to urge people to make the river pollution-free in 2014.
This dedication and struggle of Rajendra Singh now is being combined into a story and produced by film producer & director Ravindra Chauhan in form of a documentary, namely “Jal Purush Ki Kahani”.
There are very few people who strongly believe in any cause and even fewer who have the courage to devote themselves to it!
Thus Rajendra Singh aka The Waterman of India is an exemplary inspiration in all aspects!
