Some experiences move you far beyond your work as a doctor, and standing at Navdi Ovara in Nanpura, on the bank of the river Taapi, at the beginning of the Taapi Bachavo Abhiyaan organised by Love N Care Hospital, was one of them. What I saw there was difficult to accept, and I feel it is important to speak about it honestly, as a citizen of Surat as much as a physician.
The Taapi is not just a river to the people of Surat. It is the lifeline of our city, woven into our history, our culture and our daily lives. For generations it has sustained us. Yet at the spot where we gathered, there was very little water, and what remained was little more than a sludge of drainage, foul smelling and lifeless. It was hard to reconcile that sight with the river so many of us grew up loving. I felt a deep sadness, and a sense that we cannot look away from what is happening.
As a doctor, I spend my days thinking about health, and it is impossible to separate the health of a community from the health of its environment. Clean water is not a luxury, it is the foundation of public health. A polluted river carries consequences for everyone who lives near it, for the water we depend on, for the air we breathe, and for the wellbeing of families across the city. The state of the Taapi is, in a very real sense, a health issue for all of Surat.
The Taapi Bachavo Abhiyaan is a reminder that the responsibility to protect our river belongs to every one of us. It is easy to assume that such problems are for others to solve, for the authorities or for someone else down the line. But a river is saved the same way it is lost, through the countless small actions and choices of ordinary people. Awareness is the first step, and campaigns like this one help open our eyes to a reality we too often ignore.
I applaud Love N Care Hospital for initiating this abhiyaan and for using their voice to draw attention to a cause that affects us all. It is heartening to see fellow members of the medical community step forward on an issue that goes beyond the walls of any clinic. Healing a city means caring for its rivers, its air and its shared spaces, not only its patients.
At Paaranu Women’s Superspecialities, we believe our duty to the community extends to the environment our families live in. The children we help bring into the world deserve a Surat with a living, breathing river, not a memory of one.
To my fellow Surtis, I make a heartfelt appeal, please save the Taapi. Let us not wait until it is too late. Let us support efforts like this abhiyaan, change our own habits, and hold ourselves and our city to a higher standard. The Taapi has given Surat so much. It is time we gave something back.
