Post No. 11,391
Date uploaded in London – 28 OCTOBER 2022
Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com
Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.
this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.
tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com
https://www.pustaka.co.in/home/author/london-swaminathan
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As a lover of Geography and History, I have been dreaming of seeing the Blue Danube River for long. And at last, my dream came true, and I stood on the banks of River Danube on 25th October 2022. We visited Vienna in Austria for four days. There is a tradition in India to greet everyone on Deepavali (also spelt Diwali) Festival Day “Had you Ganga Snaan in the morning? Is everyone in your family hale and healthy?”. What they mean is the Holy Ganga (also spelt Ganges) comes to every house on the Diwali day and whatever water you use for bathing on that day is considered as holy as River Ganga? And I gave that proud status to Vienna spring water on Diwali day. Because all our family members had Snaanam (bathing) in the hotel room on Diwali day (24-10-22) with that water. Vienna’s drinking water supply comes from mountain springs.
Many people have commented on the blue water of Danube and of late people have been resenting about the pollution in the river as well which turned the blue river into pink and brownish. Here are a few quotes on River Danube.
Howard Dietz (American Publicist and Lyricist).
Lyndon B. Johnson (President of America)
Blue, muddy yellow or blood-red: the colour of the Danube varies according to history and geography. Never able to truly form the countries through which it runs into a single political entity, it nevertheless connects peoples and regions reconcilable only in dreams or poetry, writes László Földenyi.
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Here is a poem on the Danube
THE BLUE PLANET
THE BLUE PLANET by JOHN M. ARRIBAS
This beautiful blue planet that we call earth
No one really can confirm its origin or birth
Some declare it was shaped by a powerful being
Others state the result of a cosmic unveiling
It just seems to be a tiny body in limitless space
With the right conditions to beget the human race
Orbiting at the right distance from a giant star
Allowing flora and fauna to propel exemplar
Giant creatures once roamed the face of the earth
But a cataclysmic event caused their dearth
Doom for the giants was a boon for the small
Leaving crevices and oceans learning to crawl
And so after millions of years we arrive at now
We’ve nearly conquered the why and almost how
Yet we still have questions that surely remain
Is there a will to cease our destructive reign
The Danube was once blue now a brownish pink
The elusive snow leopard is nearly extinct
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Interesting Facts about river
Since I was not far from the place of river’s origin, I saw only Blue Danube. It is the second longest river in Europe and the most international river flowing through ten European countries. When we went there in the evening it was too late for the river cruise. But I saw lot of ferries and ships going along the river even from the plane. So I had the bird’s eye view of the river even before touching down in Vienna.
Here are some interesting facts about the river:
Indian rivers Sindhu/Indus and Brahmaputra are about 2900 kilometres long and Danube is 2857 kilometres long, nearly same. Holy Ganga is 2525 Kms long.
The Danube is 2,857 km long and up to 1.5 km wide. It is the second largest river in Europe – after the Volga (3,535 km).
One of Europe’s most well-known international waterways, the Danube is a lifeline, a vital shipping route, and an international creative hotspot. This amazing river has been at the heart of European creative and political history for thousands of years.
1. IT’S THE LONGEST NON-RUSSIAN RIVER IN EUROPE
Europe’s longest river is the Volga – an incredible 2,294-mile expanse of water that travels across Western Russia. The continent’s second-longest river, however, is the Danube – a 1,777-mile river that travels from Germany to Ukraine.
2. IT FLOWS FROM GERMANY ALL THE WAY TO THE BLACK SEA
Its incredible length and straightforward West-East direction give the Danube one of the most impressive journeys in history. This remarkable river starts in the Black Forest region of Germany and travels all the way to the Romanian Black Sea coast.
3. IT’S A 20TH CENTURY GRAVEYARD FOR POWERFUL WARSHIPS
In 1944, sensing defeat was imminent, hundreds of German ships were scuttled in the Danube to avoid capture by the Soviet Union. Today, the warships can be seen from the banks of the Danube during summer, as the river’s water level falls.
4. IT PASSES THROUGH OR BESIDE TEN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
As it travels from the Black Forest to the Black Sea, the Danube passes through or beside ten different countries. It also passes through some of Central and Eastern Europe’s most important cities, such as Vienna, Budapest, and Belgrade. It flows through ten countries – Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, the Ukraine and Romania – and thus more countries and landscapes than any other river on the continent.
5. IT’S LINED BY A SERIES OF POPULAR BICYCLE TRAILS
The Danube is an important local landmark, as well as a popular tourist site. As it travels through major cities, the Danube is lined by hundreds of bicycle trails and walking paths.
6. IT’S BEEN A HISTORICAL HOTSPOT FOR ARTISTS
The Danube is more than just a shipping lane – it’s one of Europe’s most important cultural landmarks. The river has featured in Greek legends, Romanian folk songs, and hundreds of modern novels.
The Best River Cruise prices found here!
7. IT SUPPLIES DRINKING WATER TO MILLIONS OF PEOPLE
Its immense volume of water makes the Danube one of Central Europe’s most vital sources of fresh drinking water. The river supplies millions of people with drinking water, particularly residents of the German city Stuttgart.
8. IT’S ONE OF EUROPE’S MOST IMPORTANT SHIPPING ROUTES
Through the Bavarian canal system, the Danube connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Black Sea. Because of this, it’s one of Europe’s most important shipping routes, capable of accommodating even the largest of shipping vessels.
9. IT’S HOME TO HUNDREDS OF AMAZING FLORA AND FAUNA SPECIES
The Danube is a hotspot for flora and fauna, boasting almost 200 species of fish in its waters. During the Middle Ages, the river was an important source of food due to its huge supply of sturgeon.
10. IT’S BECOMING A HOTSPOT FOR SCENIC RIVER CRUISES
Once a primarily economic river, the Danube is quickly becoming one of Central and Eastern Europe’s most valuable tourist destinations. River cruises on the Danube, as well as tours around its many cities, are very popular with international visitors.
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Pollution Problem
A wide-ranging global study has identified the Danube as the river with the highest concentration of antibiotics in Europe and the single most polluted on the continent.
The Danube begins in Germany and snakes through nine other countries, covering 2,850 kilometres, before draining into the Black Sea.
In 2019, a group of Austrian scientists noted a “critical” presence of E. coli bacteria in Serbia’s strip of the river, which can cause infections in humans. Local experts noted that this is a sign of the high levels of organic pollution.
Thanks to its sheer size and power, the Danube mostly manages to “cleanse itself,” said Bozo Dalmacija, a chemistry professor leading a water quality research team in Serbia
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Flora & Fauna
Where the mighty Danube River meets the Black Sea, it has created a massive delta land, Europe’s largest wetland area.
The Danube Delta, the largest river delta wetland in Europe, has become one of the finest, wildest, best protected and most famous wildlife areas of the whole continent. The area provides new sources of income and pride for the people who live here and in the surrounding Romanian, Ukrainian and Moldavian regions.
The 580,000 hectare delta is home to massive amounts of waterbirds of all kinds, most notably white pelicans, herons, storks, cormorants and terns. It is a favourite staging area for passage migrants and also wintering grounds for masses of migrating waterbirds from the steppes, the boreal forests and the Tundras further north.
The delta is harbouring the largest number of fish species anywhere in Europe, including Beluga sturgeon.
Flowing 2,857 km from Germany’s Black Forest to the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine and the Black Sea, the Danube is Europe’s only major river which flows west to east, from Central to Eastern Europe. The European Commission now recognizes the Danube as the “single most important non-oceanic body of water in Europe” and a “future central axis for the European Union”. Major tributaries of the Danube include the Tisza, Drava, Sava, Inn, and Prut rivers.
About 83 million people live in the Danube River Basin and more than 20 million people depend directly on the Danube for their drinking water – primarily groundwater from domestic wells. The basin also unifies and sustains a wealth of diverse cultures and traditions.
More than 80% of the length of the Danube has been regulated, and over 700 dams and weirs have been built along its main tributaries.
This river flows through 10 countries. Start from Germany, this river flow through Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Ukraine and end up in Black Sea. Some of top-class fishing species, like Pike, Zander, Welsh Catfish, Tench, Carp, Sturgeon, Salmon or Trout can be found in this river. More than that, in Danube delta, you also can find many unique Euryhaline fish, like eel, Sea bass and Mullet.
The Danube salmon can reach the size of a man and live for 30 years – but its last hunting grounds in the Balkans are being threatened by a rash of dam-building.
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DAMS
The upper part of the Danube is ideal for building hydropower plants due to the river’s natural gradient. A total of 59 dams have been built along the Danube’s first 1,000 kilometres – from the source down to Gabcikovo – many of them decades ago. This means that the Upper Danube is interrupted every 16 km on average.
Around 60% of the electricity generated in Austria yearly originates from hydropower – 20% produced along the Danube itself
At a high-level meeting of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River in Innsbruck, Austria, representatives of Danube basin countries discussed for the first time how to prevent new hydropower projects from damaging river ecosystems of the 800,000 km2 large basin.
Hundreds of books have been written on this beautiful river in addition to many documentaries.
—-subham—
Tags- Danube, My visit, Vienna, Facts, about, I saw
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Tamil and Vedas 