GUJARAT, INDIA, Feb 5, 2001 – The Saraswati river, the missing third link in Allahabad’s Sangam is making an appearance in quake-injured Gujarat. Scientists say shifting of tectonic plates in the Allah Bund fault area has led to a geographical osmosis in the Rann of Kutch area, pushing the Saraswati over-ground in spurts. Hundreds of villages in the Rann, where there was no water last week, now have streams flowing all over. Geological experts say that the Saraswati, a distributary of Indus which had vanished mysteriously around 1600 bce, has changed its course towards Kutch. “There is evidence that Saraswati was a distributary of Indus. And we also know that Saraswati had a connecting point from Indus that still flows from the top of Rajasthan to Pakistan,” a Central Ground Water Board scientist said. Now the question the villagers are asking is whether the springs will stay. Prof. R.S. Chaturvedi, a geo-scientist, says the answer can come only after a thorough research. “It depends on the amount of water available in the parent river,” he said. The Saraswati River was the lifeline of the Indus Civilization until tectonic shifts caused it to change dry up on the surface. Its course, five miles wide at places, can be seen in satellite photos of the area.
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