For the goddess of the river who is sometimes called Yamuna, see Yami

The Yamuna (Sanskrit: यमुना, sometimes called Jamuna or Jumna) is a major tributary river of the Ganges (Ganga) in northern India. With a total length of around , it is the largest tributary of the Ganges.

Its source is at Yamunotri, in the Uttarakhand Himalaya, which is north of Haridwar in the Himalayan Mountains. It flows through the states of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, before merging with the Ganges at Allahabad. The cities of Delhi, Mathura and Agra lie on its banks. The major tributaries of this river are the Tons, Chambal, Betwa, and Ken; with the Tons being the largest.

A heavy freight canal, known as the SYL (Sutlej-Yamuna Link), is being built westwards from near its headwaters through the Punjab region near an ancient caravan route and highlands pass to the navigable parts of the Sutlej-Indus watershed. This will connect the entire Ganges, which flows to the east coast of the subcontinent, with points west (via Pakistan). When completed, the SLY will allow shipping from India's east coast to the west coast and the Arabian sea, drastically shortening shipping distances and creating important commercial links for north-central India's large population.

Ancient history

There is some evidence indicating Yamuna was a tributary of the Ghaggar river in the ancient past. It changed its course to east following a tectonic event in north India and became a tributary of the Ganges instead.

The goddess of the river, also known as Yami, is the sister of Yama, god of death, and the daughter of Surya, the Sun god, and his wife Samjñā. The river Yamuna is also connected to the religious beliefs surrounding Krishna.

Wildlife & surroundings

Yamuna is one of the most polluted rivers in the world, especially around New Delhi, the capital of India, which dumps about 57% of its waste into the river. Though numerous attempts have been made to clean it, the efforts have proven to be futile. Although the government of India has spent nearly $500 million to clean up the river, the river continues to be polluted with garbage while most sewage treatment facilities are underfunded or malfunctioning. In addition, the water in this river remains stagnant for almost 9 months in a year aggravating the situation. Delhi alone contributes around 3,296 MLD (million litres per day) of sewage in the river. The government of India over the next five years has prepared plans to rebuild and repair the seweage system and the drains that empty into the river. To address river pollution, certain measures of cleaning river have been taken by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) of the Government of India (GOI) in 12 towns of Haryana, 8 towns of Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi under an action plan (Yamuna Action Plan-YAP) which is being implemented since 1993 by the National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) is participating in the Yamuna Action Plan in 15 of the above 21 towns (excluding 6 towns of Haryana included later on the direction of the honorable Supreme Court of India) with soft loan assistance of 17.773 billion Japanese Yen (equivalent to about Rs. 700 crore INR) while GOI is providing the funds for the remaining 6 towns added later. The Indian government's plans to repair sewage lines is predicted to improve the water quality of the river 90% by the year 2010.

In 2005, award winning documentary Jijivisha was made on Yamuna.

Notes

Biotech intervention to save Yamuna

A bright student of Amity, Vagish Sharma is conducting a research work to identify the Mutagenic particles in the river bed of Yamuna, a study of its first kind in the current decade.

A third year M Tech (Biotechnology) student of Amity, Vagish Sharma is conducting a research work on the Yamuna river pollution and trying the break the ground by introducing a new insight in the current campaign ‘to Save Yamuna’. Contarary to the conventional approach, Vagish is aiming to indentify the Mutagenic particles in the river bed of Yamuna.

Vagish has noted in his blog ‘http://yamunasummerproject.blogspot.com/’ that availing ‘good’ water is a universal problem and the present urban and rural setup is not only polluting the existing water bodies with various lethal chemicals but also adding impetus to the water scarcity with their non-sustainable water consumption behavior. He has supported his argument by stating the data of World Bank that there is a change in emission of organic and industrial water pollutants in countries like USA, China and India from 2,742,993, 3,358,203 and 1,457,474 Kg/day in 1980s’ to 5,339,072, 2,477,830 and 1,441,293 Kg/Day respectively in the year 2001. The situation is more critical in rivers like Yamuna, which has been exposed to anthropogenic pollution for many decades. He claimed with his preliminary survey that eighty percent of the country's urban waste goes directly into rivers like Yamuna, many of which are so polluted they exceed permissible levels for safe bathing. The research work of this scholar is aimed to investigate the presence of hazardous elements in water and its effect on surrounding environment and to explore the probability of Genetic variations or mutation on aquatic flora and Fauna in Yamuna due to the pollution by the Identification of the mutagenic particles causing mutation in both.

External links

• The Geography of the Rigveda
• Yamuna Action Plan