Govt to plant 4 crore trees along Ganga river: Uma Bharti

Government on Tuesday unveiled its plan to plant over four crore trees in next five years as Union Water Resource Minister Uma Bharati stressed on planting of Himalayan species vegetation that will produce Brahmadrav, which she said, ensures clean river water.

Releasing the detailed project report (DPR), Bharati said Brahmadrav is "not a myth or faith but fact" as she insisted on planting of "suitable" vegetation to ensure ecological flow (e-flow) of the river is adequate.

"We should keep in mind which species to be planted along the river. Ganga has an exclusive property called Brahmadrav, which ensures its water remains clean. Brahmadrav is not some myth or issue of faith alone. Brahmadrav is fact. It is an exclusive property of Ganga. This Brahmadrav is made due to Himalayan native species of trees. So, we should plant species accordingly," Bharati said.

The Minister noted Ganga cannot be cleaned by only installing effluent treatment plants and sewage treatment plants alone and stressed forestation will play a bigger part in ensuring unfettered waterflow in the river.

'Took 40 years to clean Rhine, 27 years to clean Thames'

Suggesting that no river like Ganga can be cleaned over a short span of time, the Minister cited examples of Rhine and Thames rivers, which she said took 40 years and 27 years respectively to be cleaned. In the same breath, the Minister though said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a special person who can complete a work in short span of time.

"It took 40 years to clean Rhine, Thames was cleaned in 27 years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is such a special person who can complete every work in a very short period of time. Hence, he empowered us and gave Rs 20,000 crore to spend on cleaning the river by 2018," she said.

Bharati said Ganga water can only be considered as clean if its aquatic life is in proper shape. She said those who pollute the river by letting industrial waste and sewage in Ganga are "committing sins" by devoting the river water to their deceased ancestors (as part of rituals).

The DPR release ceremony was also attended by Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar who said the Modi government's commitment to environment protection is "complete and final" as he too batted for forestry intervention to clean Ganga.

No forestation carried out by UPA: Prakash Javadekar

"To ensure there is no dearth of water in Ganga, it is required that its catchment area has jungle as it was there 200 years ago. This will ensure adequate water flow as trees and plants hold water, recharge, save from soil erosion, up ground water table," Javadekar said. 

Without naming the previous UPA government, he said that no forestation was carried out in the country over the past 10-12 years. He said the second leg of the budget session of Parliament will see passage of Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Bill 2015, which will pave way for expeditious utilisation of funds realised for forest land diverted to non-forest purposes in a transparent manner.

"CAF bill expected to be cleared in the second leg of budget session. This should ensure availability of Rs 40,000 crore funds for forestation across the country. There was no forestation carried out over the past 10-12 years. Money meant for forestation kept lying in banks, but it was not used. We will use it on the ground," he said.

Javadekar said there was a drop in pollution in Ganga and claimed the government has "near-succeeded" in stopping flow of "black liquor and spent discharge" into the river. He further added his ministry has drafted a policy to ensure sustainable sand mining across rivers.

Water Resource Secretary Shashi Shekhar said the government will plant native species all along the river's stretch and the work is expected to get underway from monsoon this year.

The government has earmarked Rs 2293.73 crore for carrying out forestry intervention. Of this, Rs 951 crore will be spent during 2016-17. Nearly 90 per cent of the fund will be spent on the intervention.

A day-long workshop was also organised to mark the release of DPR in which Senior officials from Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, environmentalists, scientists, representatives of Eco Task Force, ITBP, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan and Civil Society organizations were present.

According to the Water Resource Ministry, the DPR has been prepared by Forest Research Institute (FRI) after consultations with various stakeholders and incorporating science-based methodology over a period of one year. This included use of remote sensing and GIS technologies for spatial analysis and modeling of pre-delineated Ganga riverscape covering 83,946 sq km out of a much larger Ganga River basin within the country, it said.

The FRI designed four sets of field data formats to obtain the site-based information on proposed forestry plantations in natural, agriculture and urban landscapes along the river course and other conservation interventions. More than 8,000 data sheets were obtained from five states along the river course.

Altogether, 40 different plantation and treatment models have been selected for implementation by 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).