Union Government released Detailed Project Report on Forestry Interventions for Ganga

Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Uma Bharti on 22 March 2016 released the Detailed Project Report (DPR) on Forestry Intervention for Ganga.

The DPR envisioned policy and law interventions, concurrent research, monitoring and evaluation, and mass awareness campaigns to rejuvenate and develop forests in the Ganga River basin.

Highlights of the Detailed Project Report

• Extensive plantations in natural, agriculture and urban landscapes besides conservation interventions such as soil and water conservation, riparian wildlife management, wetland management, and supporting activities were proposed in the report.

• 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).

• The project envisages active involvement of two battalions of Eco Task Force in the states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh for raising plantations in difficult terrains.

• The State Forest Departments in five states are also expected to involve ITBP, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan and Civil Society organizations for various proposed activities including monitoring and awareness campaigns.

Preparation of the Detailed Project Report

• The DPR has been prepared by Forest Research Institute (FRI) Dehradun after extensive consultations with various stakeholders and incorporating science based methodology.

• This included use of remote sensing and GIS technologies for spatial analysis and modeling of pre-delineated Ganga riverscape covering 83946 sq.km out of a much larger Ganga River basin within the country.

• 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 8000 data sheets were obtained from five states along the river course.

• The FRI also developed software to collate, analyze and report generation on potential plantation and treatment models.

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