Govt wants ONGC to join Saraswati search

“We will approach ONGC to provide us assistance in exploring Saraswati River especially in Rakhigarhi, Hisar. Satellite images reveal that there is presence of palaeochannels and we want it to be explored scientifically,” said Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma.

Tracing the 4,000-year-old presumably dried-up mythical river is one of the most ambitious projects of the Central government. Rakhigarhi is the biggest Harappan site, located in Hisar district of Haryana and excavations are being carried out by archaeologists.

Cultural Ministry sources reveal that satellite images possessed by ISRO and ONGC have confirmed presence of a major river course passing through Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat. ONGC in the past has drilled borewells on the palaeochannels of Saraswati in Yamunanagar district. It had also launched a project to discover route of the river in Rajasthan in 2006.  

The search for Saraswati has been high on agenda of the Central government. The Cultural Ministry has already constituted an advisory committee for the multidisciplinary study of the river in 2015 for a span of two years. The committee is drawing up a comprehensive programme for the study of the Saraswati basin and is going to identify 16 sites for research and development.  

“Among other things, the committee will identify the river’s basin in general by employing remote sensing imagery, integrated GPR survey and stratigraphical as well as scientific investigation by exploration, excavation for collection of data for geotechnical, palaeobiological and archaeological analyses and research,” added an official.

The Centre has also planned to identify archaeological sites and to assess their potential for development as centres of education and tourism.

Meanwhile, the Haryana government had set up Saraswati Heritage Development Board and allocated Rs 50 crore for a project under which the river bed is artificially recharged. In Yamunanagar, the board conducted trial runs to fill the river bed with water being pumped up with the help of tubewells in July 2016.