The Forest Research Institute (FRI) submitted to Water Resource & Ganga Rejuvenation Ministry, a Detailed Project Report (DPR) on forestry intervention for a Clean Ganga, emphasising on extensive plantations in natural, agricultural, and urban landscapes as also mass awareness drives to boost efforts for protecting the river. The DPR aims at achieving an increase in the flow of river water.
According to the Ministry, the experts used remote sensing and GIS technologies for spatial analysis and modeling of pre-delineated Ganga riverscape covering 83,946sq.Km out of a much larger Ganga River basin area in the country.
FRI has designed four sets of field data formats to obtain site specific information on proposed forestry plantations in natural, agricultural, and urban landscapes along the river course and in other conservation interventions.
More than 8,000 data sheets were obtained from five States along the river course. The institute also developed software to collate, analyse and report generation on potential plantation and treatment models.
Extensive plantations in natural, agricultural, and urban landscapes besides conservation interventions such as soil and water conservation, riparian wildlife management, wetland management and supporting activities such as policy and law interventions, concurrent research, monitoring andevaluation, and mass awareness campaigns have been envisioned in the DPR.
Altogether, 40 different plantation and treatment models have been selected for implementation by five States — Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
The project will be implemented over a period of five years by the State Forest Departments of these five states in Phase-I (2016-2021), the statement said.
As part of the project, active involvement of two battalions of Eco Task Force has been envisaged in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh for raising plantations in difficult terrains.
The specific State forest departments are also expected to involve ITBP, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan and civil society organisations for various proposed activities, including monitoring and awareness campaigns.
The DPR will be released by the Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Uma Bharti, on March 22, 2016. The meeting will also be attended by the Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar.