finally there is some good news on the noyyal river, the much abused and misused river of water starved (and water unaware and water abused) state of tamilnadu.

hindu report says that around five hundred members of the committee, using the money obtained from a court direction, have removed encroachments, bushes and polluted sludge from the riverbed and in the 53-km stretch downstream, from Orathapalayam Dam to the confluence of the river with Cauvery, the committee has completed 50 km.

this is an awesome feet. farmers are the most benefited when the river is healthy and most affected when river is abused. abused by industries, abused by urban area people to draw massive water via hundred of kilometers of pipelines, abused by sewage from local towns and semi urban areas.

more such local initiatives are needed, fired by local people, powered by local people and all these should be facilitated by government.

only when local people have a stake, responsibility and say in their own resources, will the natural ecosystems in their locality be stable, clean and provide maximum benefits and real development for the region.

and these local efforts will not show up in gdp growth or hundreds of crores bank reserves or add to the finance minister positive newsreport. but these real down to earth indicators is a crucial driver of real development of rural india, where 700 million live.