Extensive plantations in natural, agriculture and urban landscapes, conservation interventions like soil and water conservation, among other aspects like public awareness campaigns, have been proposed in the detailed project report prepared by the Forest Research Institute on forestry interventions for a clean Ganga. The final DPR is set to be released released by Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Uma Bharti in the presence of Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, among others, on March 22 in New Delhi.
According to FRI officials, the DPR prepared under the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) also focuses on riparian wildlife management, wetland management and supporting activities like policy and law interventions, concurrent research, monitoring and evaluation. A total of 40 different plantation and treatment models have been selected for implementation by 5 states involved - Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. The project is to be implemented over a period of five years by the State Forest dept of these states in the first phase starting this year. The project envisages active involvement of two Eco Task Force battalions in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh for raising plantations in difficult terrains. The forest department of the 5 States is also expected to involve ITBP, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan and civil society bodies for varied proposed activities including monitoring and awareness campaigns.
It will be recalled that in April last year, the FRI was assigned the task of preparing the DPR on forestry interventions for a clean Ganga. The DPR preparation entailed consultations with various stakeholders at the National and State levels along with incorporation of science based methodology. This included use of remote sensing and GIS technologies for spatial analysis and modeling of pre-delineated Ganga riverscape covering 83,946 square kilometers area out of a much larger Ganga river basin within the country. More than 8,000 data sheets were obtained from five states along the river course. The institute also developed a software to collate, analyse and report generation on potential plantation and treatment models. The institute had earlier submitted the draft DPR to the NMCG on February 16 this year. The ministry had approved the draft and directed FRI to finalise the DPR incorporating specific comments and suggestions made by the NMCG.