Gandhian and environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna broke his 74-day fast in protest against the Tehri Dam at the Gandhi samadhi on Tuesday morning in presence of Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda. Invincible in spirit, he was on glucose when he spoke to Rediff On The Net later in the day from his bed at the Sannidhi opposite Rajghat. The clear, running voice belied the frailty of the body. Here is his first person account of his life's mission as told to Assistant Editor Anuradha Dutt:

Whatever I have received is through the blessings of my sisters. I took this risk in order to lay the (dam review) report at Bapuji's feet. I have had 56 years of public life. It was Vimla, my wife, who pulled me out of politics in 1956 when we were married. We settled down in a small village, to fulfill the last wish of Gandhiji that every freedom fighter should settle down in a village.

We would have remained unknown but for Vinobha Bhave's challenge in 1960. He called me to Wardha during his padyatra and said in a challenging voice "You are resting in your village. There is danger to India from China. Take the message of Mahatma Gandhi's gram swarajya (village republic) to the remote villages on the Himalayan border. Jaya Prakash Narayan repeated the same thing.

Since then I have been working as the sentry of the nation in the Himalayas. I have felt more than aggression, there were other types of dangers to the country from the north. China had become strong by giving up opium. Could India meet the Chinese challenge by letting its own borders be flodded with liquor?

The lives of the hill women were very miserable due to the liquor menace in the Himalayas. So we launched the anti-liquor movement. The women came to the forefront. And in seven years, we succeeded. Then there was the danger of floods from the Himalayas, which was due to deforestation. We launched the Chipko Movement, from Kashmir to Kohima, including Bhutan and Nepal, a 4,870 km stretch. In all, I walked about 20,000 km in the Himalayas.

My heart is full of grief. When I was a small boy of 5-6 years, though born in a well-to-do family, still life in the hills is such that my mother worked from 4 am to 10 pm and even later. Whenever she was too tired under the load of firewood or fodder grass, she would say "Oh God! Give me death." I could not forget those words. The hill women still ask for death from the gods. Their life is very miserable. Sometimes, in order to end their misery, they plunge into the river. My last wish is to end this misery so that no woman is forced to repeat the words of my mother. This is why I am still struggling.

The Tehri Dam is not the main issue. The main issue is the Himalayan policy because I see the Tehri Dam as the symbol of the destructive development which will kill both the Himalayas and the Ganga and uproot the hill people from their homes. The last blow to me was when they said that water cannot be given to the hill villages on the upper stream of the dam.

A drinking water scheme, sanctioned for 50 villages around Pratapnagar, was rejected because there would be scarcity of water for the Tehri Dam. They want to increase the per capita water supply to Delhi from 246 litres to 350 litres per day. You know the per capita game. How much do five-star hotels get? How much do ministers' bungalows get? Five-stars hotels use up 1000 kilolitres a day. And ministers bungalows, 550 daily, The jhuggiwalas may not get even 5 litres.

On the periphery of the Tehri Dam, there is a village, Meundha. 250 families scattered in an area of 40 sq km on account of water scarcity. And the women have to wait the whole night and the per capita water is 4 litres. Who will give justice to these people? I am going to tell the prime minister and other leaders that if the Himalayas die, this country is nowhere.

And I know there are three threats to this country from the Himalayas. The first is to the ecology of this country and the whole subcontinent. The second is economic. The Ganga is going to dry up in a hundred years. The third is security. No armed forces can defend a country. Now, the defence strategy has completely changed, especially in the Himalayas. China has settled soldiers with families on the Tibetan border. They are farmers.

What I'm worried about is that in the 19th century, Uttarakhand was very prosperous. We used to export 30 things, mostly forest products. We had very rich natural forests. We exported musk, honey, ghee, wool, herbs, cattle and even food grains to Tibet. We imported only three things from the plains - jaggery, cotton cloth and salt. Some salt we used to import from Tibet. The British started commercial exploitation and management of the forests.

The mixed forests disappeared, which were the factories of fertile soil and mothers of the rivers. So, soil and water both disappeared. Then there was no alternative before the people other than digging up the higher slopes for cultivation. That means the top soil eroded. There is a Garhwali song which says, 'The flesh and blood of the mountains have been eroded.' There is no place to stay and survive, which is why so many people come down to the plains. Those who can afford it, have brought their family down. It means they have been uprooted from their soil. It happened in the 20th century.

I have been a student of history. This is my conclusion of the study of history. Now, there is acute water scarcity. 45% natural springs have dried up. Everybody in the Himalayas in thirsty. Oh heaven! Give us a drop of water. There is no water. And the river water has been denied to us. In the 21st century, the villages of Uttarkhand will be deserted. So, who will defend the country?

The Himalayas produce brave soldiers. The first recipient of the Victoria Cross in the British army was Dewan Singh Negi. Pandit Nain Singh was the first geographer from Kumaon, who walked by over the length and breadth of Tibet during British rule. Chandra Singh Garhwali was the brave soldier who ordered not to open fire on Pakhtoon satyagrahis on the North West Frontier.

Sridev Suman, my guru, who initiated me into political life at the age of 13, was the first satyagrahi, non-violent nationalist, who died after 84 days of fast against the tyranny of the rulers and for the civil liberties of the people. There is Bachendri Pal, the first woman to climb the Himalayas, and so many others.

The Himalayas have a special attraction. This is why people go there for inspiration. All the great teachers of this country went to the Himalayas to get inspiration. Vivekanand, Ram Tirth, Mahatma Gandhi, Gurudev (Rabindranath Tagore), so many.

The glory of the Himalayas is fading. The Himalayas are dying. I have decided on the declaration of the Save Himalaya Movement as my last will and I want to present it to the leader of the nation. We don't want the Ganga to become the Colorado, which disappeared in the desert of Arizona. We don't want the Ganga to become the Honhho, which once disappeared 620 km before the sea. We don't want our sea to become the Aral sea, which dried up because all the rivers had been damned and the water had been used commercially.

The Raja of Kasim Bazaar told the British when they were going to divert the Ganga that he wanted the Ganga and Bhagirath brought to Bengal. Imagine, if all the northern rivers are damned up and the Ganga stops going to Ganga Sagar, the sea will intrude. There will be salt water and the whole of Sagar Island, the Sunderbans and the delta will disappear. Our slogan is, 'Let the Ganga flow forever. Let the Ganga remain clean'.

I told Deve Gowda that a new era has begun with his giving recognition to Gandhian ahimsa (non-violence) and satyagraha. I felt ashamed when in the West people said that you are our last hope, Gandhi is our last hope. But I told them, don't expect much from us. Because, in India, we regard what comes from the West as best. And, we are under the spell of this deceptive development.

Now, Gandhi will come from the West because your youth, your thinkers like Edward Goldsmith and Ivan Illich are saying over and over again that the only way to survive is the way shown by Gandhi. So, Deve Gowda, by recognising satyagraha, has at least made India able to say that there is a way to survive, to the world, sitting on a heap of an over 50,000-strong nuclear arsenal.