`Lost` Saraswati river brought `back to life`

Chandigarh: The 'lost' Saraswati river was brought back to life on Friday when the Haryana government pumped water into its deemed route.

As per reports, 100 cusecs of water was pumped into a dug-up channel from tubewells at Uncha Chandna village in Yamunanagar.

Officials are expecting the water to fill the channel uptil Kurukshetra, some 40 kilometres away.

The pumping of water into the dug-up channel was part of the Haryana government's plans to revive the lost river.

The Saraswati Heritage Development Board (SHDB) had conducted a trial run on July 30.

The Indian Express quoted Anil Kumar Gupta, Engineer-in-Chief, Haryana Irrigation Department, as saying, “We have released water into the river at Uncha Chandna on Thursday. Initially, 100 cusecs of water has been released. It is likely to go up to Kurukshetra. It is yet to be seen how much further the water goes. Once we see that there are no obstructions in the flow of water then another 100 cusecs will be released. This could be done in another fortnight.”

There are plans to build three dams on the river route to keep it flowing perennially.

The state government claimed to have found the lost river when water was detected during digging of the dry river bed at Yamunanagar.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was quoted as saying recently, “We have never claimed that Saraswati is flowing over the ground. Saraswati’s undercurrents are present till date. But where are the currents and how deep this cannot be calculated today. As per the revenue records, around 150 km stretch of land is such where Saraswati used to flow.”