Is a River Alive?

Robert Macfarlane traveled to Chennai, India, to investigate the relationship between urban development and river systems through the lens of what he calls “ghosts, monsters, and angels” (124). The ghosts represent the rivers that have been killed to enable city growth, the monsters are the destructive forms these dead rivers take during floods and cyclones, and the angels are the activists and naturalists working to protect and revive the waterways. Macfarlane’s primary guide is Yuvan Aves, a 27-year-old teacher, naturalist, and water activist whose personal transformation from abuse survivor to environmental advocate parallels the potential restoration of Chennai’s damaged ecosystems.

Macfarlane shares some of Yuvan’s life story, which is marked by resilience and transformation. At 16, he fled an abusive household after years of systematic violence from his stepfather, who beat him with various objects and once prevented him from seeking medical treatment for a snake bite. The stepfather resented Yuvan’s academic success and once forced him to burn his biology textbook page by page. When his stepfather threatened to prevent him from attending school—Yuvan’s only escape—he ran away with just a few rupees. Yuvan found refuge at Pathashaala, a residential school surrounded by traditional water storage systems called eris.