Narmada is the name of a river, a life, a civilization, a culture, a faith. Crores of emotions are attached. The history of human life is hidden here - both past and present. In the submergence zone of the Indira Sagar Dam, not only the city of Harsud was submerged, but a complete culture was immersed in it. Even now, there are many places of historic significance within the 214 km long reservoir of Sardar Sarovar, along with the 192 villages and a town, thousands of temples, mosques, Jain temples, worship places of tribals and the beliefs of common people are there too. According to the Department of Archeology, there are many remains of ancient and pre-historic era including sites from Maurya and Parmar dynasty periods along with the remains of the first human being in the Asian continent. Even today the excavation continues and research is going on indicating the historical and cultural significance of the region.

Each year, millions undertake the Narmada Yatra, from Amarkantak to Bharuch. Its not just their faith but inspiration for many stories, memoirs, poems, art, music, drama and life lessons so on written in many languages. Even today, Narmada serves as the source of inspiration and backdrop for many artists, writers, poets, painters and filmmakers.

The struggle of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, in many ways, is to save lives, livelihood and a civilization flourishing around Narmada. Today nearly thirty big dams, some hundred medium and almost thousands of small dams have been built over the Narmada and its tributaries in the name of development, something wich has completely destroyed the river and its ecology. Along with these villages and towns, temples, mosque, farms, barns, roads, schools, hospitals, ghats, sports grounds, shops and many others things are facing submergence. We have worked hard to stop this from happening, some battles we won, some we have lost, but our struggle continues !You have been witness to the recent phase of our struggle in the Narmada valley. You have also given your invaluable support in many ways from time to time. Even today, the Sardar Sarovar has filled up to 130/131 meter water, which has submerged houses and shops in low lying areas in many villages. They have been reduced to islands and cut off from the nearby villages. Most of these families have not benefitted fully from benefits of rehabilitation, given the corruption and mismanagement in the application of the new packages and their entitlements.

Even then, only few hundred families have started building their homes on the R&R sites, but the life of thousands of families, living in their original villages continue to be miserable. In this situation, it is necessary that the gates of Sardar Sarovar dam should be left open, so that submergence is prevented, given that the gates of upstream dams have been released. We want you to raise this demand along with us so that this destruction can be stopped.

We invite you to come to the valley to see this situation, understand and extend the work of support in every way. We are inviting you to publish the reality of Narmada with articles, pictures, songs, drama, etc. or any other medium and take it to the nation. It is the need of the hour that through every medium of publicity and propaganda, the story of Narmada goes to the whole country, so that a civilizational culture can be saved. We urge you to come and join us and bring others too.