Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

[sprightly music]

-He is here. -Hello.

[woman] Hello.

-Hello, Naseer. -Hi. You are Valli?

-Yes. -Hi.

-[man] Hi. -And Marthand?

-[Valli] Good to meet you. -[Naseer] Hi, nice to meet you.

[clears throat] So, what have you got for me?

So, um... [in Hindi] This is our script.

[in English] Um, the film is about big energy projects

and their impact on--

"SuryaGanga."

The story on the epic conflict between India's...

land, energy, water, and people.

[paper rustles]

[in Hindi] What is this?

Rivers... people... What has this got to do with energy?

So, uh...

[in Hindi] ...different energy sources have different impacts

on the environment and people...

-Oh, come on. -And that is--

This is not the way to tell a story.

[in Hindi] Huh! Is this a way to tell a story?

[in English] Where's the glory? Where is India's growth story?

-[in Hindi] But... -No, no, no.

We are talking about all of that as well, you know.

-Industrial growth and... -Yes, yes... You environmentalists!

[in Hindi] I know what you'll say.

"Don't build this, don't build that.

[in English] Go green."

No, no, sorry. This is not for me. I'm not doing this.

[sprightly music]

[Naseer] What's all this?

-[Valli, in Hindi] This? -Yeah.

It's a hard drive.

[Valli, in English] This is where we have... shot and cut the footage so far.

[Valli, in Hindi] Do you want to watch it?

[in Hindi] Okay, let's watch it.

[wind blowing]

[reflective music]

[Valli] It is easy to fall in love with a river.

Any river.

This is Ganga.

[reflective music]

[Valli] Years ago, my family and I used to holiday by this river

at the foothills of the Himalayas.

[Valli] One evening, sitting on the ghats my mother had said

that she had never dreamt of being by this river,

and that this was one of the most tranquil times of her life.

[reflective music continues]

[kid singing] ♪E-I-E-I-O ♪

♪ And on that farm he had a Anu. ♪

♪ E-I-E-I-O ♪

-♪ With a... ♪ -[Valli] With a?

[Valli] As my child grew, it was time for her to experience Ganga,

about which she had heard so many stories.

[Valli] Only... we couldn’t find the river.

We learnt that a number of hydroelectric dams had been built upstream

and so, for most part of the year, up in the Himalayas,

the River Ganga, along with her many tributaries didn’t flow anymore.

[reflective music]

[Valli] The little one had questions.

[kid] You said it is a furious river.

Where did all the water go?

And if the river is not there, why read stories about it?

[Valli] We had to get some answers.

So my brother Marthand and I

set out to find what was really going on and why.

[tires screech]

[Himanshu] See, India's hydropower accelerated in 1990s.

And after that it has continued to maintain high growth rate.

[Himanshu] And in that era

there were demands for more and more resources,

including electricity.

So, there was a push for more hydropower projects.

It started at that time, but the movement really accelerated

starting from the initial years of this millennium.

The central government was an engine

for this kind of push for big hydro.

They wanted to set up, within a time frame

50,000 megawatts of hydropower.

[kid] Look, Mumma, so many rivers!

[Valli] The Indian subcontinent covers an area

of over 3.2 million square kilometers.

Barring a chunk of dry desert in the west, this massive landmass is lush

with hundreds of big and small rivers.

Three major river systems

the Indus, the Brahmaputra, and the Ganga

begin up here, in the Himalayas.

[upbeat music]

[music continues]

[music ends]

[Valli] In 2013, at the time we began making this film,

there was no clear defined number of hydropower dams

planned on the Ganga river basin.

[Himanshu] Whatever figures are available, one can say that

anything between 80 to about 600 projects

are likely to be taken up.

[Valli] Already known to be one of the most polluted rivers,

now, its basin could become one of the densest dam sites on the planet.

[water flowing]

[Valli] So how is a dam made?

[man 1, in Hindi] Make some tea, brother.

[man 1, in Hindi] And add some ginger.

[Valli, in English] Is it just a wall with some machinery attached?

How does it work?

[man 1, in Hindi] Add more sugar.

[Valli, in English] And what do they do with the water?

Our next stops,

one to Maneri Bhali, a 90-megawatt hydropower dam,

and second to one of the country's biggest

and most experienced dam building companies.

[Valli] Whoa! Nice!

[engineer] Basically, the hydropower project is...

We are converting hydro energy into power.

And potential energy into electricity.

[dam official, in Hindi] Let me show it to you.

Just film this, okay?

So... [clears throat]

-I have to tell you how it works, right? -[Valli] Very basic.

[dam official, in English] Very basic. Okay.

Suppose, these are the mountains...

From here, the river originates.

[Valli] The dam is a wall built across the river.

As the river flows into the dam wall, the water level rises.

The dam has gates to control this water level.

A desilting chamber is built before the dam wall.

[music continues]

A tunnel is dug out from this chamber.

[engineer, in Hindi] This is the intake of the tunnel during the construction.

This won't be visible later. The construction is ongoing.

-[music continues] -[both chatter]

[Valli, in Hindi] So, it will be filled with water.

[engineer] Yes.

[engineer] This is the tunnel.

[Valli] This is also under construction?

[engineer] Yes, and you won't be able to see it later.

[engineer 2] Because it will be filled with water.

[engineer 1] If there is a maintenance issue...

[engineer 1, in English] Which nobody will like...

[Valli] Hmm.

[engineer] Well...

civil efforts are taken care of in these designs.

[engineer 1, in Hindi] These are the tunnels.

[Valli] Wow!

What a great idea!

[in Hindi] The Ganges in the tunnel!

Who will dare pollute it?

[in Hindi] Meaning?

[in English] Who will go into a tunnel full of water to shit?

Hmm?

It's a great idea.

[in Hindi] In my opinion,

we should tunnel it all the way.

All the rivers of this country should be tunneled.

[in English] "No shit."

[in Hindi] "Protect it."

See, I can also write. Not bad, right?

[in English] "No shit." [in Hindi] "Protect it."

-[Valli laughs] -You can borrow it, if you like.

Sure.

[music continues]

[Valli] A second tunnel is blasted through the mountains

taking almost all the river water inside it,

down towards the powerhouse.

At Maneri Bhali Dam where we were,

the river flows through this dark tunnel within the mountains for 8.6 kilometers,

to reach the powerhouse downstream.

[car engine revving]

[Valli] Outside, the riverbed is left almost dry throughout.

The turbines in the powerhouse use the gushing water to generate electricity

which is then fed into the main grid.

[Valli] Job done, the water is allowed to flow back onto the riverbed.

[dam official] This is all we have.

[Valli] If the plan of 80 to 600 big and small dams was carried out,

all densely packed like cars in a traffic jam,

most of Ganga's waters would be within tunnels

while outside the river itself would remain dry.

But for now, we had found where our river had disappeared.

[in Hindi] Wow!

So big.

[in English] You know, Jawaharlal Nehru once said

"Indiana Dams are the Temples of Doom."

[Valli] He said modernity. "Dams in India are temples of modernity."

Doom, modernity... It's the same thing.

We did find some issues though.

[Naseer] What issues?

Let's see.

[song playing over the car stereo]

[Bijna, in Hindi] Ever since we heard that a dam was being built,

[Bijna] people in my village wondered what it would be like

[Bijna] so we all went to see it.

[Bijna] And when we went and saw

trolleys and buckets pulling concrete up and down

[Bijna] we were wondering what's going on.

When the destruction began...

[Valli] At that time did you think that the dam will benefit you as well?

Yes. We thought there is a lot of work here. Maybe, we will get jobs.

Maybe, something good will happen.

[Himalayan folk song about King of Snakes]

[Valli, in English] A public hearing is a process that is part of the due diligence

[Valli] that every dam building authority, private or government needs to do by law.

[in Hindi] Ideally, they should publish in the local newspapers in the local language

that we are talking about this project in a public hearing.

In the public hearing,

you lay down the details of the entire project in front of the public.

Saying that we are coming into your territory

[Mallika] and we will be doing all this work.

[Mallika] This is what the government is planning.

[Mallika] These are the pros of the project and these are the cons.

[Mallika] Speak in their language and help them understand.

[Mallika] And then get their approval.

There was an incident that happened near Munshiari

for a public hearing, the company gathered the villagers saying...

we are organizing a feast.

And you are all welcome to come and have food.

Then they said, okay now it is all over.

The feast is all over.

We have to reimburse the amount from our company.

Please sign on this paper and confirm your presence.

And then they furnished that document

saying that so many people attended our public hearing.

[in English] One honest EIA One honest EIA of hydro power project

-[Valli] None? -Doesn't exist.

-[Valli] In all these years? -Yeah.

You show me one honest EIA.

You show me an EIA and I will show you what is the problem.

Fundamental problems, not just tinkering here and there.

[car engine]

[Parineeta] Unfortunately, the way

the entire dam discourse is happening in the country,

which has no place for the affected people to actually voice their concerns,

not just voice their concerns

but be at the decision-making table about their resources.

Till the time that's not going to happen,

people stopping dams is going to be the way out.

[Valli] Or the courts.

Or the courts.

And that's... that's a very bad thing because...

this is confrontation at its highest.

And it's especially bad when this confrontation

actually has to happen with your own government.

[farmer] Hiya!

[Marthand, in Hindi] Is there shortage of water here?

[farmer, in Hindi] Yes, water is a problem.

-[Marthand] No water. -[Farmer] There is no water.

[Marthand] So what are you going to sow here?

[farmer] We will sow paddy here.

[Marthand] And where will the water come from?

-[farmer] It's dry. -[Marthand] Oh, it is dry.

[Marthand] Will it grow if it is dry?

Yes, if it rains the harvest will be good.

[Marthand] Yes. The harvest will be good.

Otherwise, it will be dry.

[Marthand] And the irrigated land you had...

That is all barren now.

[Marthand] How did it become barren? [farmer] There is no water.

[Marthand] Where did all the water go? [farmer] The water dried up.

It must have gone because of the dam. Where else will it go?

[Marthand] How much water did you get in the past?

It used to be a lot. We used to irrigate all our farmland with it.

[Bijna, in Hindi] Now we will not let any more dams be made.

2-3 years ago they came and said, "give us your farms."

We said no matter what you are after we will not give our farms to anyone.

It doesn't matter if we have one farm or two.

No matter what money you give... how many years will money last?

Two years, four years or five years... but our farms will not go anywhere.

Our farms will support our children and our grandchildren.

Our farms will not go anywhere. Leave our farms alone.

[Valli, in English] It isn't just farming that gets affected.

[Valli] When a river disappears, it marks the beginning of the end of the culture

[Valli] the ethos, the very identity of the people living around it.

[Valli] We were filming in January

[Valli] just days after an important and a most beautifully celebrated

harvest festival called Makar Sankranti.

[village women laughing]

[melancholic music]

[Shiela, in Hindi] Traditionally, we get up at four in the morning, bathe, pray...

[Shiela] and head down to the Ganges for a dip.

All the women of the village would go.

We used to dip ourselves fully in the river.

Some would dip three times, some five or twelve.

Last year, they released at least some water.

But this time, they didn't release it at all.

This time, they did not release even a drop of water of Ganga.

We went searching for water.

There was no water.

We just hit rock and more rock.

What should we do?

Our traditions are

vanishing before our eyes.

[Valli, in English] Over the centuries, we have made

the river Ganga embrace our dead rather intimately.

[Valli] It is an age-old tradition to cremate bodies

and immerse the ashes in her waters.

[Valli] So over millennia millions of people

from across the country have come to this river to do just that.

[Valli] Today, downstream of a dam when a person dies

[Valli] the villagers have to write to the dam authorities to release some water

[Valli] so they can cremate their dead.

[Valli] Because, it is the dam company that holds the power to control the water.

[Bharat, in Hindi] No, they don't release the river. They don't listen.

[Bharat] No, they don't release the river.

When there are deaths,

we write letters to them.

No, they don't release the river.

[kid chatters]

[Valli, in English] On the day we left, an old woman from the village, died.

[folk drums]

[Valli] The villagers cremated her by the Ganga.

[Valli] No water was released.

[drums cymbals]

[Parineeta, in English] Listen, I'm going to write about this judgment.

Because you know it's just...

so fantastic, it's just amazing.

And I hope it sets precedences throughout the country, it will.

[Valli, in English] We learnt that the Ganga river basin wasn't alone.

[Valli] The rivers flowing in northeastern India were meeting a similar fate,

if not more dramatic.

[Parineeta] This is the Brahmaputra river system

with three of its important tributaries which come together

to form the Brahmaputra in Assam in Dibru Saikhowa National Park.

[Parineeta] One is the Lohit river system. There is the Dibang river system.

There is the Siang river system.

Let's take an example of Dibang Valley or the Siang District...

where you have the lower Siang Dam coming up.

Uh, just downstream is a very, very beautiful sanctuary.

It's called the Daying Ering Sanctuary

which then flows out into Dibru Saikhowa National Park

[Parineeta] In a single day, in lean season, when the flows are low...

here hydropower will be generated

because of the sheer amount of water which you will need to impound

for the entire day and then release it for two hours or four hours.

Two hours in the morning, two hours in the evening to generate hydropower.

But these are big rivers. These are huge rivers.

The entire channel itself defies our perception of rivers.

It's braided. It goes on for 20-25 kms.

[Parineeta] That's how these rivers behave and have evolved.

Now when you hold it back, when lower Siang dams and upper Siang dams

and Siang valley dams, right to SIOM. They hold back water...

and they would release the water in a gush,

the entire level difference in one day at Daying Ering Sanctuary

which is about 30 kilometers downstream of the last dam on Siang, that is lower Siang

would be more than 20 feet... 20 feet.

[Valli] This is on a daily basis?

This is on a daily basis.

So, in winter what will happen to the river is that it will behave...

in drought in distress for 22 hours

and it will have the highest of its monsoon flows for two or three hours.

[Parineeta] This is a situation which is happening nearly everywhere.

It is happening in Siang, in Dibang and Lohit.

You can't choke a person and then say but we released him after one day.

[Steve] If we talk specifically about fish then typically...

[Steve] you have fish that live on the bottom of the river.

[Steve] Then fish that live in the middle of the river

and fish that live at the surface.

That's in simple terms.

Usually, they will be in that position because that's where they get their food.

So, the fish are adapted

to fill the ecological niche... let's say it like that.

When you dam a river, instantly you change the whole ecology of the river.

The fish which previously were there

either they have to adapt or they die out.

I know from a scientist colleague who's done work

in a dam where the river impoundment

was put in place maybe 30-40 years ago.

When he samples fish in the dam, he finds around 20 species of fish.

When he goes into the river upstream

sampling in the natural river, he finds 200 species of fish.

Something has gone very wrong with that environment, clearly.

[flowing water]

The impact of dams on fish is something we've absolutely not studied.

We don't want to go there.

Throughout the country, the impacts have been heartbreaking.

[Parineeta] We don't want to build fish ladders.

We don't want to discuss fish ladders.

We don't want to discuss any of these...

possible interventions which may hold some promise.

[Jason] Large hydro is often a very alluring part of the mix.

[Jason] Once you make the intervention in the river system,

so long as the water flows those turbines are going to spin

and money will be made.

Large projects tend to invite corruption.

You see this in pockets all throughout the world.

So, government interests that are approving these...

[Jason] are also liable to personally benefit or at least politically benefit

[Jason] from so much money billions of dollars moving through their coffers.

These are the kinds of alluring elements of the economy that are pushing

this large dam boom and again what is most necessary is to stop and say wait...

What are we trying to grow? What is this electricity used for?

At least, be honest and suggest that it's about further industrial expansion

and let's not hide behind this... this greenwashing that...

that this is somehow sustainable that more dams

will lead to a greener and brighter future

and that all boats will somehow rise that the poor will somehow benefit...

[Valli] We drove up and down the Ganga river basin

[Valli] and found that the intense developmental activity

[Valli] was taking its toll on not just the river, but the mountains as well.

[Valli] Around construction sites of these massive developmental projects

[Valli] as the earth below trembled due to continuous blasting

[Valli] and absorbed water from the reservoirs.

[Valli] Massive chunks of land had broken away.

[Valli] Houses had been ripped open.

[Valli] Entire villages had sunk.

[reflective music]

[Valli] The mountain face seemed brittle and dangerously unstable.

[Valli] All along the river scars of old and recent landslides

[Valli] passed by too close and frequent for comfort.

[reflective music]

[Valli] And then, there was that thread one rarely talked about.

The seismological threat is very real.

And this is conceded even by the developers.

[Simon] And so, everywhere from a main frontal thrust...

north... 200 kms to the Sutia zone,

the boundary between Indian rocks and Asian rocks.

This fault, it's not a vertical line through the earth

it's a very gently dipping line through the earth.

So, everywhere along this belt is underlain by a huge fault.

This is an old picture now but it shows...

where the big earthquakes had happened in historic memory.

1950 in Assam 1934 in Nepal. Much bigger than the Kathmandu earthquake.

And it shows the size of earthquakes that we expect along the Himalayan front.

That is to say we do expect earthquakes.

The size of the 1950 earthquake, the size of the 1934 earthquake

to happen periodically along this front.

[Valli] So, when you say a big earthquake what are we talking about?

A magnitude eight or larger.

[Valli] So, all the big red bars, those are eight and plus?

That's right. They come up to an eight. Yes. Yes.

And we're certain those will happen because we're certain those have happened.

There is every reason to believe that these dams and projects

should be sited far more carefully.

Unfortunately, a proper realistic analysis of these dams have not been done.

Although, there are engineers who have been designing these dams and...

quite unethically they were also the advisors to the government.

So, they were not only providers of designs

but they also advised the government.

And they were on all the committees. They convinced the government of the day...

that whatever they had designed was safe enough.

Although, no serious analysis has been done.

[flowing water]

[Valli] It was becoming clear that the odds

were stacked up high against big dams in the Himalayas.

[Himanshu] Because, you are going into

inaccessible areas and difficult to access areas.

[Himanshu] Your cost in those areas will be higher than the other areas.

[Himanshu] Secondly, see the climate change is also making...

them realize that the water flow is unpredictable.

And the whole hydropower generation depends on that.

Thirdly, they also realize whether they don't accept it publicly that...

the chances of disasters are going up... for hydropower projects.

During the construction phase particularly, but even subsequently.

[band plays]

[storm rumbles]

-[man 1] Is that a man or a cow? -[indistinct chatter]

-[man 2] Is that a man? -[all] Yes, it's a man.

[man 2] He is stuck.

[indistinct chatter]

[whistle]

[man 1] There's another one there.

[man 2] He won't get out.

[man 3] How will he get out?

[man 2] He won't get out now.

[band drums beat]

[Valli] June 2013 marked a shift in the hydropower discourse in the country.

[Valli] Cloud bursts are not new in the Himalayas.

[Valli] Only this time, the millions of tons of dam and mountain debris

[Valli] that had been dumped all along the basin

[Valli] turned the water flow into a monstrous deluge.

[Valli] So we went in.

[Valli] The riverbed had risen almost everywhere.

[Valli] At some places, over 50 to 65 feet.

[pensive music]

[Valli] During the cloudburst, part of a glacier broke away

[Valli] and crashed into a mountain lake

[Valli] which then emptied itself into Kedarnath Valley.

[Valli] The raging floodwaters then headed downstream

[Valli] for Lanco's 76 megawatt Phata Byung dam in Sitapur

[Valli] choking its diversion tunnels with tons of silt and boulders.

[Valli] The torrent then flattened the barrage before moving down to Kund,

[Valli] the site of L&T's Singori Bhatwari plant.

[pensive music continues]

[Valli] L&T's powerhouse was completely wiped out.

[Marthand] Is this from where the helicopter was swept away?

[Durban] The second helicopter was swept away...

[Marthand] In the night.

[Durban] I think it happened in the morning.

[Durban] The helipad broke away at three in the morning.

[Marthand, in Hindi] Did it happen because of the rain?

[in Hindi] It rained. And then there was a Jaypee dam upstream.

The gates didn't open in time. The flood increased because of that.

If they had kept the gates open, the water would have flowed more easy.

-[man 1] They did not open the gates. -[man 2] They opened it all at once.

-[man 1] It broke? -[man 2] Yes. It did.

-[man 1] They kept the gates closed. -[man 2] Yes, because...

-[man 1] The closed gates couldn't hold... -[man 2] The water pressure...

It couldn't hold the water pressure and so it bursted.

All at once.

The dam burst towards the National Highway Road and then the floods came by.

The flood lasted for a long time.

[Marthand] It lasted for 10-12 hours?

Yes, this was not like earlier times when the flash floods lasted for 10-15 minutes.

No... this continued for hours. It was quite a sight.

[Valli, in English] The dams at Srinagar, DhauliGanga, Motighat, Madhyamaheshwar

[Valli] Asiganga 1&2 Maneri Bhali 1 and 2 suffered damages as well.

[man, in Hindi] 2 turbines were swept away some equipment from the dam site too.

[man] Yes, that was expensive equipment.

[Hemant] Another dam was the 400 MW Vishnuprayag Project.

The Alakhnanda river filled up that dam in such a way...

[Hemant] And the river cut open a side of the mountain.

[man] The dam got left here and the river made its way around it.

[Marthand] Wherever the river goes, they will have to take their dam along.

[dam official] Nowadays, it is very difficult to construct a hydro dam.

Hydro power project.

[dam official] You very well know that... because of Eco-sensitive zone, the NGOs...

[dam official] So, we have to protect them.

[Marthand] Because of the floods? [dam official] No, no...

[dam official] It is totally foreign funded... all these agitations...

[dam official] Hydro has nothing to do with that...

-[Marthand] Floods? -[dam official] With floods.

[reflective music]

[flowing water]

[reflective music continues]

The future of this technology is very bleak.

And if you realize the total cost that we are paying as a society

for any one of these projects

then there should be no question of such projects going ahead.

[flowing water]

Dam it.

You still think so? Of course.

How else do we make power?

[in Hindi] Well, there is coal.

[in English] Most of the developed nations

generate electricity with coal and so it is in India.

Brilliant! Coal it is then! Coal is the goal.

Not exactly, but let's watch.

[muffled train announcement]

[journey music]

[in Hindi] Spicy treats! Spicy treats!

[journey music continues]

Nuts lemon lentils! Nuts lemon lentils!

[journey music continues]

[train horn]

[train wheels]

[Valli] Energy and water now seemed deeply entwined. More questions cropped up.

[Valli] How do rivers get affected when electricity is made with coal?

[Valli] Where is coal mined? And then what do we do with it?

[Biswajit] This is the general structure of a coal field.

So while drilling we found that coal layers are at a depth of...

200 meters... here.

Whereas, here it is only 25 meters.

[Valli] Which means either we scoop the coal out from just below the surface

[Valli] by a method called open cast mining.

[Valli] Or dig tunnels and drill it out from deep under the ground.

[train wheels]

[Valli] We had entered the heart of Central Indian coal fields.

[Valli] The color of the soil looked different.

[Valli] Cargo trains look busier.

[Valli] Everything looked very industrial.

[Valli] How many years of formation are we talking about?

It is several million years. It is several million years.

Out of death comes life as Lord Shiva said - renewable is the future.

Shiva said that? Oh, no, no, no, this is...

this is coal. This is... coal is not renewable.

Coal... you burn it. Poof it goes into the air.

It never comes back to its original state.

-Coal. -[Valli] It remains in the air as smoke.

Coal is renewable.

It is renewable.

You tell me, what will happen to you when you die?

I don't know. I'll be dead, right?

Yes... and you will be buried.

And in a million years, you will become a fossil.

My friend, you will become coal.

Renewable.

[sigh]

Anything else?

There's some more.

[sigh]

[Shripad] A lot of them are in the eastern and central part of India.

Chhattisgarh has huge deposits. Odisha has large deposits.

Then you have Jharkhand which has large deposits.

Some parts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh border...

These are the Singrauli coal fields and...

nearby coal fields and then you have West Bengal...

and then you have northeast and Meghalaya and you have some

other coal deposits in the northeast.

[Valli] All the electricity that we have,

it's a huge percentage that coal gives, right?

Yeah around 70-71%.

[Valli] So, how much coal reserves do we have?

In India, we have a total reserve

of 301 billion tons of coal.

Yes... as per present exploration. And it is increasing.

[Valli] What this means is, at the current rate of use,

[Valli] the country's coal reserves would last almost 500 years.

That's brilliant! Black gold.

Now nobody can stop us from becoming a superpower.

I wouldn't say that at this point.

This dark rock comes with a dark story.

How can be a dark story when it lights up my house?

Well, world over coal is being considered dirty energy.

Oh okay... now they tell us.

They burnt their own coal and developed.

Now, when it is our turn it has become dirty energy.

This is all a conspiracy.

-[Valli] This... -They want to keep us backward.

They don't want us to develop.

They want to control us.

That may not be entirely true, you know.

And you both... with this film.

You are talking the same language.

You are also anti-nationals. You are also traitors.

Sir, you are wrong.

Where are you getting the funds from?

Well, many people are helping in many different ways.

-Foreign agents. -[in Hindi] Who are you calling?

Wait. You are making serious allegations here.

At least, finish watching the film.

-Are you bugged? -No, I am not.

What is that?

-[Naseer, in Hindi] Why is it kept here? -[Valli in Hindi] This...

This... this is my hair clip.

-[Valli] It's a hair clip. -[Naseer, in English] Looks dangerous.

[Valli, in English] It's not dangerous.

Look, you have to... you have to know more about coal.

And its impacts on the environment and the people the world over.

Not just in India... everywhere.

[sighs] Alright. Show me.

[Shripad] A lot of the coal that we have is in very thickly forested areas.

[Shripad] Areas which harbor a lot of wildlife...

[Shripad] you know, which harbors rich ecology and biodiversity

which are the areas that provide...

and recharge groundwater and of course they are home to many tribal communities.

[Shripad] So, when you want to mine them then you to clear-fell these areas...

[Shripad] and access the coal below the ground. So...

[Valli] In a nutshell, coal is dug out, taken to washeries

[Valli] where it is crushed and washed then transported to the power plant,

[Valli] to be burnt to produce steam to turn the turbines to generate electricity.

[Valli] Throughout this process,

coal shares a rather close relationship with water.

[Valli] So, we planned our visit during the monsoons

[Valli] to see how intimate this relationship could get.

[music]

[Sanjit] This is it. We are here.

[Sanjit] Come... move fast... because if someone notices us then...

[thunder rumbles]

[Valli] In its various stages of making electricity,

[Valli] from mining till it is burnt,

[Valli] whenever coal debris meets water,

[Valli] it releases a toxic cocktail of heavy metals in our waterways

[Valli] polluting our rivers, streams, our groundwater,

[Valli] water that we all drink and use on a daily basis.

[heavy rain]

[Valli gasps]

[Sanjit] Huh... is this good?

[Valli] This is crazy.

[Sanjit] Is this good enough?

[Valli] That morning while the heavy rainstorm kept the guards indoors,

[Valli] we had entered areas that are usually off-limits.

[Valli] The mix of coal debris and water was complete.

[man] All this flowing water goes into the river.

[Valli] Into the Damodar river? [Sanjit] Yes. Into the Damodar river.

[Valli] These were not leaks or spills.

[Valli] The plunder was out there in the open

[Valli] with nothing to contain millions of tons

[Valli] of coal sludge from entering our waterways.

-[indistinct chatter] -[man] The AC is not serviced.

[Valli] Khan Sahib, what are you doing today?

[Sanjit] We should take you inside as well.

[Sanjit] Inside the washery, the water is all black.

Anyway, you are seeing it out here.

[Khan] Today, your wishes have come true.

[Valli] Khan Saheb, you are doing an amazing job today.

[Sanjit] Take this road on the right.

-[man] Where? -[Valli] To the right.

[Sanjit] Look out here on this side.

[Valli] Whoa!

[Sanjit, in Hindi] Can you see the fire... the smoke?

[Sanjit] Can you see it?

[Valli] No, let me step out.

[Sanjit] Right... film from the inside first, as much as you can.

[Sanjit] Look down at all the fire... climb up. Why don't you climb up?

[Valli] I'm climbing, bro!

-[Valli] Oops! -[Sanjit] Come on, fast...

[train horn]

-Do you see all these cracks? -[Valli] Yes.

Gas is coming out from all these cracks.

[Valli] Is this also a subsidence area? [Sanjit] Yes.

[Sanjit] But do not go near because the gas is fatal.

It can kill a man.

[Valli] How much of inhaling does that?

-One long... -[Valli] Really?

A long inhale and you are gone.

[Valli] So, if the winds change, we should run.

[Valli shudders]

Look there.

-[Valli] Oh, right. -[Sanjit] You can film there.

[Sanjit] Don't go too near. Don't inhale the gas.

[Valli] I'll stop breathing. [laughs]

[Sanjit] Take the photo. Not the gas.

[machine sounds]

[Sanjit] All this area... wherever we are standing is on fire.

-[Valli] All these cracks... -[Sanjit] Hmm.

-[Valli] will make this land sink? -[Sanjit] Yes.

[Sanjit] All this will sink.

[Sanjit] Look... another puff of smoke just came out.

[Valli] Whoa... what happened?

-[Sanjit] There was a blast underground. -[Valli] We didn't hear anything.

[Sanjit] This was a natural one.

-[Sanjit] It blew on its own. -[Valli] When...

The fire underground released the gas.

[Sanjit] You saw this happen twice just now. The first one was a while back.

[Sanjit] There are different variations. It goes up till 20,000 ppm.

[Valli] How much should it be?

-[Sanjit] It should be less than 0.2 ppm. -[Valli] Huh!

It is 20,000 ppm. Parts per million.

[Valli] Of carbon?

[Sanjit] Carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen... other gases are also there.

[Valli] Has it increased in the last 10 years?

[Sanjit] Hmm.

[Valli] Was it tolerable before that?

[Sanjit] It wasn't tolerable.

But as the mining activity increased,

the fire and subsidence has also increased.

[Sanjit] It's a huge loss to natural environment.

[Sanjit] If they are mining,

they should rehabilitate and plant trees.

There is nothing around. Just you see.

They have left overburden out in the open.

They should dump

and regenerate the soil again.

Do some plantation...

[Valli] But they are required by law, right?

The laws cover everything.

[Valli] And that is the reason they are so secretive about it.

[Valli] Because, they don't follow the law.

[Shripad] Now, Indian coal typically has very high ash content.

It can be up to 35-40%.

[Shripad] The idea is that you have these washeries.

I mean washeries is a little simplified way of understanding it.

It's not that you put coal in water and wash off the dust.

It is a mix of physical chemical processes

[Shripad] by which these impurities are separated out

and what comes out is called clean coal

which is a misnomer because it's not really clean.

It's slightly better than the earlier ones.

[Shripad] You know, say from 35%, it may go down to 20% or 22%.

[reflective music]

[Shripad] Many of the washeries are supposed to be zero-liquid discharge

so this is not supposed to go out

[Shripad] but we have seen blatantly this water just let down

into rivers and into streams which has very serious impact.

[reflective music continues]

[Valli] We drove around a power plant

[Valli] which for some reason guarded itself like a fortress.

[Valli] In a power plant, the washed coal is burnt to generate electricity.

[Valli] Well... not just electricity.

[Shripad] We are generating ash in terms of millions of tons.

[Shripad] I think last year, we probably generated 160 million tons.

[Shripad] Just to put a figure on that, I think it is more than two times,

[Shripad] the total municipal solid waste generated in the country

[Valli] Hey brother... can you call him for a minute?

[man] Yes.

[Valli] I have to ask him something about the trucks.

[man] 700 in a day.

[Valli] How many times do you come and go?

[man] We come 3-4 times.

[Valli] The entire day?

[Valli] And what is the truck's capacity?

[man] This carries around 15 tons.

[Valli] Hmm. So here you will keep dumping and move forward?

[Valli] All this land that has sunk?

[man] Yes, all this mined area will be covered.

[Valli] Alright. Wonderful!

[man] We will leave now, sister.

[Shripad] If you go to coal mining areas and areas where coal is burnt,

[Shripad] it is supposed to be disposed in a wet process in the ash ponds.

[Valli] This you could just go and film? [Shripad] Yeah.

[Valli] Which location is this?

This is Chennai, north Chennai. See the size of the pond.

This is only one part of the pond. There is another behind this...

[Valli] So what happens to the groundwater in and around these places?

All contaminated. That's the big thing.

Now, this is supposed to be lined. It's not lined at all.

[Valli] Lined means?

[man] Lined meaning put a plastic underneath.

No, I mean that requirement also came in only in the last eight to ten years.

[ash water falling]

So, you see the consistency. So, now it falls in, some of the water will evaporate

some will seep in, at some places the ash will dry...

then it starts blowing...

[Valli] No smoking? [laughter]

-[Valli] Ironical. -[doctor] We don't need cigarettes.

-[Valli] We don't need... -[doctor] Cigarettes.

-[Valli] Everyone is smoking. -[doctor] Everyone is smoking.

[both laugh]

[patient, in Hindi] It burns here.

[doctor, in Hindi] You have problem of the heart?

[patient] Yes, a little of that. [doctor] Yes, you are right.

-[doctor] You have problem breathing too? -[patient] Yes, a little of that too.

[doctor] How many years have you had this breathing problem?

[Valli] We read that there are a huge number of deaths

this is all over India figure.

[Valli] 100,000 that die due to respiratory problems...

so what are they dying of?

[Valli] Is it pneumoconiosis?

[doctor] No, no... pneumoconiosis is related to the coal dust

and also coal dust gives rise to a disease known as COPD...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

[Valli] We listened for over two hours

[Valli] as the doctors listed an endless account of diseases

[Valli] caused just by living around the coal belt.

[Valli] And we were talking about people in the millions.

[Valli] So, the deaths are caused because of...

[doctor] Environment is alien. It is not natural.

The workers suffer from different aspects of diseases.

They may be depressed most of them are suffering

from peptic ulcer because of the hard job and frustration.

And then, heart disease, hypertension is very common here.

The immunity of the workers and immunity of the people

in the surrounding area comes down.

So auto-immune diseases... the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis is very high here.

The incidence of leprosy, as I told you like tuberculosis has increased because...

cancer is related to the duration of the dust exposure.

-Yeah... it affects the GIT - our Gastro Intestinal Tract.

-[Valli] The heavy metals? -Yes, heavy metals. It can

lead to cancers of the GIT and of the kidney also.

It leads to cancers of the urinary bladder...

Nowadays in India, the average life span of an individual is around 73 years.

You could die a decade or two before.

[Valli] We headed out looking for underground mines.

[Valli] We were also eager to see what groundwater really looked like down there.

[Valli] You expect a mine and you find a cricket field. [laughs]

[Valli] Really? Dhoni has played here?

[doctor] Yes, before being selected in the Indian team.

[doctor] We are going to look at this one.

[Valli] Are we going in?

[doctor] Yeah.

-[doctor] If you want, we can. -[Valli] Yeah, yeah. Sure.

[doctor] Don't mention the place, okay? [Valli] No, no.

[doors closes]

[doctor, in Hindi] It is barricaded. So, we can go till here, at least.

[ground water falling]

[miner, in Hindi] Don't go too near. You'll get a grease stain.

[ground water falling]

[Valli, in Hindi] Is this working now? Yes.

[Valli] Really? Have people gone in there now?

[miner] Yes. And they will go again.

[Valli] What time will they go in?

[Valli] Woo-hoo...

[miners] It's like home inside.

[miners] It is dark inside. Why don't you go for ten minutes?

Go in. Go and look around for a few minutes.

Manager sahib is sitting here. He will make it happen. No problem.

[manager] Shall we go now?

[manager] Keep this permit with you.

[footsteps approaching]

-[shrill bell] -[dog barking]

[metal clang]

[classical vocals]

[Valli] Okay.

[classical vocals continue]

[classical vocals continue] [ground water falling]

[Pakhawaj drums]

[cricket shot]

[boy] Take it, Suresh!

[boy] Ahaa.

[knock knock]

-Hello, Ram Singh, how are you? -Am good, sir.

[ground water falling]

[Ram Singh] Loader means... hauling coal.

Our job is to haul coal.

We haul coal.

[metal clanging]

[doctor] It is very slippery here. We have to be very careful.

[ground water flowing]

[Valli] How far does this go in?

This goes in very far. We can even reach Bagdevi mines.

We can go around 12-10 kms inside.

[water pump humming]

This is the water pump that operates 24/7.

Otherwise, this whole mine will be submerged.

[manager] 4000 gpm. This mine generates

4000 gallons of water per minute.

[water pump humming]

[Marthand] When is the shift ending? [miner] 4 p.m. sir.

-[Marthand] 4 p.m. -[miner] Yes, sir.

[Valli] Did your father do the same work? [Ram Singh] No, he was a supervisor.

[Valli] He was over the ground?

[Ram Singh] He was both. Supervisor. [Valli] Yes. So...

[Valli] What I mean to ask is, he was a miner.

-[Valli] So are you. -[Ram Singh] Yes.

[Valli] What do your kids plan to do?

[Valli] What do they want to become? Do they say anything?

[Marthand] Go to the city?

Yes, sir. They have aspirations of doing things.

It is up to them and what they want to do in the future.

[classical vocals continue]

[Raghu] I don't want to let him go underground.

As soon as I get a job I will not let him go underground.

[Ram Singh] I want them to study well and I

will not want them to go into the mines.

[Ram Singh] I wish they never go into the mines.

Why should I care about the future generations?

What have they ever done for me?

-Groucho Marx. -Huh?

Groucho Marx had said the same thing.

He is right. Who is he?

A comedian.

Why are you doing this?

This is such a great country.

We have had thousands of great rulers.

We invented yoga, zero, the calculator...

Not the calculator.

And now you give me this.

No dams. No coal. No nuclear.

You are taking me into a dark tunnel at the end of which there is no light.

Actually, there is a light. A big, blinding light.

[doorbell rings]

[door creaks]

[Tony] Energy is mostly about policy.

It's not about technology, really.

It's not about what makes sense for the population.

Traditionally, it's been about policy.

[paper rustles]

[Tony] In 1991, India had 5 million phones.

Today, there's 1 billion telephones in India.

Just 20 years. Now, how did India do this?

How much did it cost the government?

What it cost the government? Nothing.

All the government had to do is change the policies.

And the beauty of cell phones is that it did not need a grid.

And that's the same thing with solar.

[upbeat music]

[upbeat music continues]

[Ashwin] There are larger societal benefits of renewable energy

[Ashwin] which accrues to the society as a whole in terms of cleaner air,

[Ashwin] in terms of energy security, in terms of lesser price volatility,

because it does not have any fuel cost associated to it.

So, once you install a wind turbine or a solar plant

then for 20-25 years, you know it's going to give you energy at a fixed price.

[man, in Hindi] First, we had a meeting in the village.

[Valli, in Hindi] These panels... how much power do they generate?

[man] There are 24 panels. Each panel is of 240 watts.

These are 24 panels. 2 series of 12.

[man] The distribution is done from... the control room.

[man] The output that comes from the energy meter there...

it's all underground.

It comes through the ground till this meter.

[Valli] So each house has a meter here?

[man] Yes, each house has a different meter.

[Valli] And the wires go to each house?

[man] Yes, each house. Here's the input. And the output goes from here

[man] and goes up above to each house.

[Valli, in English] Is laying down a grid very expensive?

But we have about 80-90% covered, right?

Yeah, most of the villages... over 95% of the villages have the grid reaching there.

[Ashwin] So, there's a distinction here.

[Ashwin] So, when you say the electricity lines

have reached the village.

[Ashwin] It does not mean every house in that village has electricity.

[Ashwin] And that's why, the discrepancy that 400 million Indians

still do not have electricity.

I think there's an opportunity here to leapfrog the grid entirely.

And I believe that most Indians and most rural Indians

their energy needs are going to be best served by clean distributed energy models.

Instead of centralized generation and expensive distribution and transmission.

Local generation and local distribution is really the model.

[teacher] It's a common myth that solar power

[teacher] is only for... you know one or two lights.

[teacher] We have our whole school 80+ classrooms.

[teacher] More than 4,500 children and the area is over eight acre area.

[teacher] And we have all that being powered by our solar power plant.

[teacher] We have ACs, we have lifts

and have close to two to three fans per classroom.

[teacher] More than three tube lights per classroom. It's just not that

you're just lighting one light or one fan with solar

but the whole school is actually powered with solar.

We have more than six blocks here which are taking power from the plant.

The plant is intelligent enough to decide

if it's a cloudy day then we take it from BESCOM.

[teacher] And when the load is less and we're generating good enough,

[teacher] we export it back to BESCOM

and BESCOM compensates that in our next electricity bill.

[Valli] Oh, wow. It spreads out! [Teacher] Yes, totally. 400 panels.

Even a first standard child will know.

[teacher] But a ninth standard child would probably give you more details on it.

[teacher] But everybody is aware that

there is something like this in the school.

[teacher] Probably once a week, the grade comes

sees everything and you know actually experiences,

because we believe that it's just not talking

we have to actually show them everything.

[Sunita] If you really want solar to become part of the energy future of India,

then you have to think about how you can have decentralized solar projects work.

But then the challenge comes is that nobody has an effective model.

Because everybody has done solar energy in small little bits. They're cute solutions.

Okay. But not of the scale that you need them to be.

And so now the big challenge is to scale it up.

So, think of the grid as the Internet...

where anybody can come in and be an Internet service provider.

where anyone can be a user and anyone can be a seller.

If you do that if you think about the grid in an open way,

you are basically opening up the energy business,

[Tony] to a million entrepreneurs

[Tony] to come in and put up solar on a billion rooftops.

[Tony] Provide storage, provide energy generation and sell it.

[Tony] And also plug it into the grid.

What are they doing?

This is madness. So much destruction.

This will be the end of life. The end of the universe. Everything.

Why, what happened?

The Sun. The Sun is the source of life.

And here these crazy fellows are sucking out all its energy.

This will be catastrophic.

[Valli] Calm down, Naseer. [Naseer] You got to stop them. No, no, no.

[Valli] Nothing of that sort will happen [Naseer] How do you know how?

Well... the solar panels... look how shiny they are.

They are going to reflect it all back.

These solar panels will keep the Sun alive and burning for billions of years.

They are shiny.

Just make sure they give it all back to the Sun.

After all, we have think of future generations also.

You're right.

Where are the markets which will actually reach energy to poor?

If the markets existed to reach energy to poor,

you wouldn't have millions in darkness today.

So, the first thing that governments should do...

is to stop subsidizing and protecting big energy companies.

Stop subsidizing. Um.

I'll give you one example.

India today, according to the International Monetary Fund

um, gives 30 billion dollars a year

to the fossil fuel industry in subsidies, right?

If you just stop subsidizing fossil fuel

and put that money into solar,

you would give 500 million people in India...

access to power for the next few decades, right?

[introspective music]

[Eklavya] Now, if we only generate this...

[Valli] We were speaking with renewable energy entrepreneurs

[Valli] authors, manufacturers and planners

[Valli] an excited bunch of people who were looking into a future

[Valli] where our climate and freshwater systems could heal and sustain themselves.

[Valli] In most of our conversations, one common thought was

[Valli] if our governments have the political will,

[Valli] to make the right choices now,

[Valli] the switch to clean energy could happen very quickly.

[Valli] What are the big policy changes

you want to see any government make to boost solar?

Get out of the energy business.

There is no reason, today, in modern energy.

Modern energy is about technology.

[Tony] It's closer to telecommunications

or cell phones or internet provision.

[Tony] In the 20th century, there were a lot of governments

[Tony] who were in the telecom business, who were in the telephony business,

[Tony] but now there aren't because it's essentially a technology business.

[Tony] So, the government should get out of the energy business.

It should not own the transmission.

It should not own the distribution.

It should not own the grid.

[Brad] They are publicly traded companies

but they're not used to really being dynamic

and competitive and changing the way... people do in the technology business.

Where the half-life of a product is 18 months

so you're constantly thinking forward.

These businesses are like moving the Titanic.

They don't even steer. They just do the same thing.

Either you're a government agency or you're a for-profit company.

You can't be both.

[Valli] For solar entrepreneurs, government

policy affects real issues on the ground.

Unless you have total clarity

you have to kind of figure out...

okay this is what I want to give to these people.

this is how much conventional electricity I have right now.

And this is how much I need to supplement it through renewable sources.

And therefore I have an integrated plan.

Otherwise, how will it work?

If you say that okay you go and do renewables and then

two years later somebody else will say no

now let's improve the conventional.

It's a recipe for disaster, right?

Because, there's always this fear that if I go in put in and tomorrow

if some person comes in and says something else...

a system which is going to recover its money for me in 25 years.

You need policy certainty.

[Valli] Have you heard about the solar cooker?

The one that works with the sun.

-[Valli] Yes, yes. -Lot of light.

[Valli] Renewable energy today is cheaper than electricity provided by the grid

[Valli] in hundreds of markets around the world.

[Valli] Even with all the subsidies that conventional energy industry gets

[Valli] solar and wind come out cheaper.

You are seeing a huge movement of people

that are using water as the main argument

against coal and fossil fuel industries,

not actually climate change or pollution.

We're at a point in human history now

where we cannot afford to continue along this path of dirty energy.

We see the many ways in which it's actually

undermining our progress, undermining our prosperity.

100% renewable energy really must be the goal.

Really must be the goal.

[soothing music]

This fan will keep us cool during global warming?

This is a wind turbine. It generates electricity from the wind.

From wind? And who will blow the wind towards this big fan?

It's a mystery.

[soothing music continues]

[Valli] We seemed to have come to the end of one road

[Valli] and the beginning of another.

[Valli] Clearly, we had a choice.

[Vandana] I think in every sphere of life,

[Vandana] earth democracy means

[Vandana] that wherever the earth provides the resources

[Vandana] and wherever people have a need,

[Vandana] whether it be for food or water or energy

it be as decentralized as possible.

We can't let our limitations be our convenience.

[Parineeta] It's our limitation that we can't study

[Parineeta] or we can't respond to the daily nature of the river flows.

[Shripad] If you define your basic objective

of the power sector saying that first I want

[Shripad] everybody to have electricity for their basic needs.

Then the whole sector would be structured differently.

Solar is the solution of the past.

Solar has been the solution of the present

and solar is a solution of the future.

[soaring music]

What I know is we humans are

way more powerful than we want to believe.

We all like being small. We like having enemies.

Look what they're doing.

We like being able to point fingers because

then I don't have to look in the mirror.

Looking in the mirror is a lot scarier.

Being accountable is a lot harder.

[soaring music continues]

[loud knocking]

[loud knocking]

[in Marathi] What is going on here?

[in Hindi] What is going on?

Who is this Valli and Marthand?

That's us.

Hey, what are you doing?

You have been called to the police station.

You are making a film? And that too against the nation?

We are making a film alright, but how is that against the nation?

Naseer you've got to tell them. You've just seen the film.

No, I haven't seen anything. It is not my film.

It is about giving power to the people.

Well...

Okay, you don't get involved in this.

Let's go to the police station.

This is not done.

-Let's go. -Let's go.

Naseer, do something.

This... check this hair clip.

Let's go.

Not my film. I don't know anything.

[footsteps fading out]

[door shuts]

[street noise]

[door shuts]

[reflective music]

[reflective music continues]

[Ratna] ...talk for hours and at the close, at last the elephant arose

[Ratna] and with a modest trumpet call drew the attention of them all.

[Naseer] O Beasts of Bingle gathered around

though in our search for common ground.

[Naseer] I would not dream of unanimity at least our views may reach proximity.

[Naseer] I speak to you as one whose plan has served

and therefore studied man.

[Naseer] He is a creature mild and vicious practical minded and capricious.

[Naseer] Loving and brutal, sane and mad, the good as puzzling as the bad,

the sticky center of this mess is an uneasy selfishness.

He rips our flesh and tears our skin for cloth without for food within.

The leopard spots his to wear our ivory unknots his hair.

The tragopan falls to his gun, he shoots the flying fox for fun.

[Naseer] The black bear dances to his whim,

my own tame cousins slave for him.

Yet, we who give him work and food have never earned his gratitude.

[Naseer] He grasps our substance as of right to quench and spur his appetite.

[Naseer] Nor will he grant us truce or space to rest secure in any place.

Sometimes he worships us as gods or sings of us at Eisteddfods

or fashions fables, myths and stories to celebrate our deeds and glories,

and yet... despite this fertile fuss when has he ever cared for us.

[Naseer] He sees the planet as his fief where every hair or leaf or drop,

or seed or blade or grain of sand is destined for his mouth and hand.

If he is thirsty, we must thirst for of all creatures, man comes first.

If he needs room, then we must fly and if he hungers, we must die.

Think what will happen, when his scheme to tame our valley and our stream

begins to thrust its way across these gentle slopes of fern and moss

with axe, explosive and machine.

[Naseer] Since rhododendron logs burn green

they will all be chopped for firewood

or logged and smuggled out for good.

[Naseer] As every bird and mammal knows

[Ratna and Naseer] when the road comes the forest goes.

And let me say this to the trout...

the bamboo will be slashed no doubt and what the tragopan and I

delight to eat will burn and die. But what will happen to your stream?

[Naseer] Before the reservoir, your dream of endless space can come about...

the soot and filth will snuff you out.

[Naseer] What tolls for us is your own

bell and similarly, let me tell...

the leopards who may fancy here, a forest full of fleeing deer,

after your happy passing slaughter, you too will have to flee from water.

[Naseer] You will be homeless like us all,

it is this fate we must forestall.

So, let me say to every single endangered denizen of Bingle,

we must unite in fur and feather,

[Ratna and Naseer] for we will live or die together.

[free flowing water]