CATS Harike Wetlands Trek

Most memorable part of the boat ride was seeing the Sangam of River Beas and River Satluj. Whilst Beas waters were clear and relatively fresh, Satluj waters were clearly murky, smelly, oily, filthy and thoroughly polluted. In fact, we could clearly distinguish between Beas and Satluj waters where they merged together in the Sangam. The stench arising of the Satluj waters was so unbearable that we had to request for the boat to be taken towards Beas waters. We were told that every Minister or Officer who comes to Harike for a day trip simply enjoy the natural habitat after making tall promises for taking care of the polluted Satluj waters, but nothing of substance has come to the fore thus far. We noticed later that most of the birds were prancing around in the Beas waters and not on the Satluj side. An extremely sad state of affairs indeed.

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