The officer who gave life to the river is in danger

UTTAR PRADESH: Sot, the river that served as the lifeline of Sambhal district in western UP, dried up and was left to dry until IAS officer Manish Bansal spotted the 110-km dry riverbed and took it upon himself to restore it. He completed his mission for six months as the District Magistrate (DM) of Sambhal.

Sot now has a live stream with a natural flow that minimizes waterlogging in the area. Even half a century ago, the Soth, which covered 70.00 gram panchayats in five development blocks, was a raging tributary of the mighty Ganges, providing farmers in the region with ample water for irrigation.

Over time, it disappeared, leaving almost no traces on the land, thanks to large-scale encroachment and mass neglect.

In 2022, 2013 batch IAS officer Manish Bansal took over as DM Sambhal. During one of his visits to the place, he found an area that looked like a riverbed. In the absence of water, it literally became non-existent.

“A small culvert (culvert) that was once made over the river was visible,” says Bansal, then DM Sambhal, who now heads neighboring Saharanpur in the same capacity.

He adds that in many places, farmers have encroached on the riverbed and started growing grain crops.

According to Bansal, the river has been encroached to the extent that it has lost its natural downstream flow path. Because of this, the surrounding areas will remain waterlogged during the monsoons. “The river used to be a natural drainage system for the area,” he adds. Not only has the Sot disappeared, but the water table in the area has dropped dramatically, leaving farmers dependent on boreholes, exacerbating water problems.

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, the DM decided to restore the river. The study found that the river was 110 km long, starting from Amroha district in the north of western UP and flowing to Budaun in the south of the same region. After that, officials were instructed to remove encroachments on catchment areas. Well-versed in the ins and outs of agriculture, Bansal, who hails from Sangrur in Punjab, found clearing encroachments along the river quite a challenge.

“We sought the help of the land records team to remove the encroachment,” shares Bansal. The next step was de-silting to remove the fine silt and sediment that had collected in the river bed.