Sunil negi in conversation with renowned environmentalist..Sunderlal Bahuguna.

I returned back from Uttrakhand just today evening after having been busy in few family marriages and ofcourse some of the personal engagements. The trip was undoubtedly fantastic and quite refreshing as I was not only able to meet my old acquaintances in my village and Pauri, a small town always bubbling with hectic activity amidst serene beauty of snow peaked Himalayas, particularly the beautiful CHAUKHAMBA range of peaks measuring 7138, 7070, 6995, & 6854 meters in altitudes, respectively. My colleagues of the journey, namely real brother Anil Negi, Rattan Rawat, Rajinder Singh and cousin Ravi made the whole trip not only extremely exciting, memorable by their most enchanting and affectionate behaviour and cooperation but the sense of humor possessed by them was also excellently fantastic. We collectively attended three marriages one in my village and two in Dehradun and the amount of respect and cordiality received by us was tremendous which always kept our moral high during these four days. However this was entirely a personal visit , my most fortunate and significant achievement was meeting the most respected figure of the country and the environmentalist of world fame Sunder Lal Bahugunaji, who is recuperating in Dehradun and seeking treatment for speedy recovery. I want to extend my sincere gratitude to him for having been able to meet us who went to him to wish him good luck for his speedy recovery and also to seek his pivotal blessings. What makes me thrilled that despite of his not being in very good health, Mr. Bahuguna not only welcomed us to the hilt but also talked lot about his serious concerns over the ecological degradation of the Himalayas, acute depletion of water resources in Uttrakhand, construction of huge dams in the Himalayas at the expense of the precious lives of people and animals, speedy degradation of environment and the tributaries of UK, tremendous increasing in the migratory influx towards the cities and the metropolis of the country due to non availability of basic health and job avenues and the shocking increase in the illegal and illicit nexus between the government, bureaucrats and the contractors who are hell bent upon making the hills completely a sciesmic zone, more prone to disastrous earthquakes by way of incessant illegal excavations of minerals, mud, stones, deforestation and also extraction of other valuable materials including ramphant increase in corruption in the society. At the age of more than eighty years and having a frail body with weak health, I was thrilled to hear this great saint and an expert of international standard on environment talking extempore on the subject like an uninterrupted talking machine and expressing his serious concerns about the incessantly degrading ecology, environment and conversion of living rivers into dead ones due to the faulty anti-people policies of the government at the state as well at the central level, irrespective of the fact whether it's the government of NDA or UPA. While appreciating his serious concern for the Himaylayan safeguards and the good of the state as well as the country, Mr. Bahuguna expressed his complete rejection for the construction of large Dams in the state expressing the fear that if the highly ambitious Tehri Dam collapses in the future Meerut will be completely submerged in just 15 minutes while whole of Western Uttar Pradesh in few hours. He felt sorry, that his 74 days incessant fast for saving the himalayas against the contruction of huge dams, which was broken by the then Prime Ministers' Narsimha Rao or Deve Gowda has not been able to educate the Indian executive machinery while the world learnt a lesson from it. My meeting with Mr, Bahuguna was therefore not only a pleasent one but was also an opportunity to meet a living legend of environmental protection, popular universally.