If you have ever lived near a small river, you know how easily it becomes part of your everyday life. It runs past fields, marks shortcuts between homes, and holds memories of festivals, rituals and long afternoons spent by the water. In Azamgarh district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, the Tamsa River has always been that familiar presence.
Over time, though, the signs of strain grew harder to ignore. Silt made parts of the river shallow. Plastic and household waste gathered along the banks. Encroachments slowly reduced the space the river needed to breathe. The Tamsa still flowed, but it looked tired.
In February 2026, a conservation and cleanliness campaign in Azamgarh brought renewed focus to the river under the Namami Gange Programme. The effort covered an approximate 89-kilometre stretch and involved 111 gram panchayats (village councils). The scale alone meant this could not be a one-day clean-up. It required planning, cooperation and steady follow-through.
Gram panchayats coordinated planning, labour and monitoring at the village level.
The work began with conversations at the village level about what a cleaner river could mean for health, farming and daily life. From there, a clear action plan took shape. Shallow stretches were desilted so water could move more freely. Garbage and debris were removed from riverbanks. Vacant riverbank land was measured and illegal encroachments cleared. Fruit-bearing trees were planted along available patches, adding both green cover and potential economic value for the respective gram panchayats.
From clean-up drives to shared responsibility
What gave the campaign strength was participation. Cleanliness drives and awareness efforts mobilised schoolchildren, youth groups, women’s self-help groups, voluntary organisations and local residents. Through shramdaan (voluntary community labour), plastic, polythene and other solid waste were cleared from riverbanks and ghats. Sanitation workers were deployed, dustbins were installed at key points, and families were encouraged to segregate wet and dry waste to prevent dumping into the river.
The Tamsa flows through Ambedkar Nagar, Ayodhya and Azamgarh before merging with the Ganga. As a tributary, its health directly influences the larger river system. Continuous efforts in Azamgarh have led to improvements in water quality, revival of biodiversity, and better soil fertility and irrigation potential in nearby agricultural areas. Convergence with MGNREGA strengthened desilting, cleaning and plantation work by bringing workers and structure to the ground-level effort.
The changes are visible along the riverbanks, especially around sites used for religious and cultural activities, where cleaner and more organised surroundings now welcome devotees.
The rejuvenation of the Tamsa offers a simple lesson. When communities treat a river as shared responsibility rather than someone else’s problem, restoration becomes possible. Across 111 villages, that choice has begun to reshape the river’s future.
