Manoj Kumar Misra, the defender of Yamuna and many other rivers too, is no more. He passed away on June 4 after battling Covid-19 for nearly two months, at a time when many of us thought that the pandemic is over and done with.
Though a forester by profession — he spent 22 years in the Indian Forest Service in the undivided Madhya Pradesh — protection of rivers became his mission. With Manoj, his passion for rivers was infectious. As convenor of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan he used everything at his disposal to protect the Yamuna: from writing in conventional and social media, making various representations, conducting awareness programmes, reaching out to riverine communities to taking up litigation in the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
It was due to his constant efforts since 2011 that the NGT gave the 2015 verdict that led to the Nirmal Yamuna Rejuvenation plan. In March 2016, Manoj took on the three-day World Cultural Festival on the flood plains of Yamuna, taking the matter to the NGT, which formed a Supervisory Committee headed by this writer (Shashi Shekhar), based on whose report the NGT imposed a fine of ₹5 crore for the pollution and damage caused by the event. Perhaps even more significant was Manoj’s enormous contribution to drafting the Subordinate Legislation on Ganga, which provides the legal framework for the river even today.
