By the River – Cauvery October 2026

This weekend, I had the opportunity to be part of a Cauvery cleanup and also hold a By the River session with the serene Cauvery as our backdrop.

This was something special for us. Our By the River sessions are usually held beside the Vrishabhavathi, where the water flowing past us is often visibly polluted and almost jet black. To sit beside the clear, serene Cauvery and hold the same space felt very different. We hope someday the Vrishabhavathi will look like this too. 

The cleanup drive was organised by WASI and Freshwaters India Foundation along with Forest Department officials. It gave all of us a chance to see another reality along this beautiful stretch of the river.

There was waste left behind by tourists as well as local people. We picked up what we could. But a lot of the plastic had already started breaking into tiny pieces. Some of it was almost impossible to remove. What remains will continue to break down and eventually become microplastics in the river system.

That morning our group was part of the cleanup at Mekedatu. While we cleaned up the trash along the riverbank, we could also see that the water itself seemed polluted. This spot is past Sangama where the Arkavathi has already joined the Cauvery and brought with her the waste and sewage from Bengaluru and other areas along her course.

One of the locals asked a question that stayed with me: Why did they connect a drain to the Cauvery? The “drain” he was referring to was the Arkavathi.

After lunch, we began our By the River session with this context.

We take Cauvery water upstream at Shivanasamudra. And then through the Arkavathi we send polluted water back into her.

Is this the responsibility we have towards a river that sustains us? Is this fair to her?

And is a river only the water we see flowing between two banks? Or is she much more than that?

The Singers Sans Borders team sang O Nadiye. The song asks some questions that stayed with us:

The forests, the mountains, the shady valleys, the lichen and the moss
Everything that stores your waters is being destroyed.

Hundreds are ready to fight for your waters.
But who is there to fight to save you, oh river?

Those words felt especially relevant sitting beside the Cauvery.

The discussions that followed acknowledged that cleanups can only do so much. Many expressed a desire to work constructively with the Forest Department to address the problem at source.

I came back with these questions.

How do we prevent waste from reaching the riverbank in the first place? How do we help people understand that visiting and enjoying these beautiful places also comes with a responsibility to care for them? Volunteers can come together and clean. But we cannot keep returning to pick up what is repeatedly left behind.

Perhaps our responsibility towards the Cauvery begins much before a cleanup. It begins with how we see her. Not just as water to be shared and allocated. Not just as water to be fought over. But as a river that gives us so much and one that we have a responsibility to protect.