Theme based public and expert opinions

The enunciation and progress of Namami Gange Programme

Global research and experiences show that the health of a country’s river reflects the economic status of the enormous population that lives in the basin. The high prevalence of poverty and lack of economic prospects for Ganga’s population, particularly farmers, is one of the major techno-social variables responsible for the river’s current status. The Ganga’s issue did not go overlooked by the PM Modi and he in his campaign in Varanasi in 2014, pledged to clean up the Ganga with his words “mujhe toh Maa Ganga ne bulaya hai” . He immediately started the NGP project after taking office, an integrated conservation effort with a budget of 20,000 crores to achieve the goals of effective pollution abatement, conservation, and regeneration of the Ganga. By 2022, the project hopes to have fully connected all 1,632 Gram Panchayats along the Ganga to a sanitation system. Moving forward in his 2019, in 73rd Independence Day speech, he emphasized the need of water conservation, saying that the center and states must collaborate to save water and supply it to every family. He stated that the government has set aside Rs 3.5 lakh crore for the project and that work on the Jal Jeevan Mission will be carried out with vigor in the coming years .
The competing roles of the river – power generation, irrigation, domestic water supply, fisheries, riverbed agriculture, result in a variety of services, which if sustainably managed, can contribute to sustainable economic development of the country. In this direction the PM again directed the NMCG to lead the development of an ’Arth Ganga’ economic framework model for the Ganga Basin, integrating people’s participation and financial development with Ganga rejuvenation, with a target of a 3% contribution to GDP from all concerted efforts made in this direction .
In between these two events, there was lot of criticism projected towards the NGP which caught the attention of then Minister of Water Resources, Nitin Gadkari, who expressed his deep displeasure over the ‘slow progress’ of projects and directed his officials to do quality work in a transparent, corruption free, and time-bound manner. He explained that they need to work on changing the general public perception that nothing is being done, and suggested solutions towards issues like loopholes and the delay in the process of DPRs preparations, finalization of tenders, and payments to contractors . Nitin Gadkari push seemed to work and helped in fast tracking of a lot of lingering projects which were eventually finalized after facing a lot of condemnation from the people across multiple sectors both in and out of political prism. In the same year, PM Modi met with the governments of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh after regaining power in both states’ legislative assemblies’ elections. Upon examining the status of work completed, he directed authorities to ensure public participation so that the NGP does not remain only a government initiative, as well as proper distribution of project-related information. . At this point, the BJP had friendly administrations in four of the five states along the major Ganga stem. However, there was a lot of political uproar after The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India issued a performance audit report to assess the availability and utilization of funds, planning and implementation of various schemes/projects, adequacy of human resources, and effectiveness of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. The performance audit revealed underutilization of funds as around Rs. 2,500 crores were found unspent in the banks, and delays in the project approvals between 2014-15 and 2016-17 , besides several other shortcomings as apparent from a detailed report summary .
Union Home Minister, Sh. Amit Shah, during ‘Ganga Aamantran Abhiyan,’ ceremony, still stated that ‘Namami Gange’ improved water quality of Ganga” and that the project to clean Ganga, had been a success as government is planning to launch similar initiatives to clean other rivers in the country in coordination with people. He referred to the successful organization of Kumbh Mela (2019), and said that the people attending the ceremony were testimony to the NGP success . Further, Sh. Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog also heaped praises on the government and said that ‘With Its Multi-Sectoral Approach, Namami Gange Has Been Successful in Making Positive Impact’ while talking at 5th India Water Impact Summit 2020. He also expressed that data and numbers are not sufficient, and only the passion can make the administration work a success. Taking inspiration from the Prime Minister’s “vocal for local” campaign, he suggested that local water bodies should be managed by local people and should cater to local needs which will also generate local employment and reduce the cost of transporting water .

Livelihood Generation Opportunities

According to Indian literature, Ganga is everlasting and has thousands of years of history, with at least hundreds of years of documented writings about her. She not only provides ecological (biodiversity) and social values, but also economically sustains the people of India (livelihood). However, the non-judicial and irrational behavior of economic agents has jeopardized her resources.
A recent case study on the Ganga resources and the flow (ferry and tourist) and non-flow (riverbed farming) associated livelihood options drawed our attention to the current situation. According to the report, the tragedy of the commons, state-provided subsidies, and myopic conduct within the community have reduced the sustainability of river resources, which will have a negative impact on the biological, physical, human, and management systems across the rivers. The article says that a comprehensive research of environmental assets is required to develop information on the socioeconomic advantages of river resources, and that an effective knowledge-based allocation of resources is urgently needed .
Uma Bharti, Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Ex-Union Water Resources Minister, during an event on ‘Swach Ganga Abhiyan’, reciprocated the reports of experts and said that maintaining the Ganga’s uninterrupted flow is critical as approximately 50 crore people rely on the Ganga for their livelihood and half of them would lose their resources if it dried up .
Shekhar shah, DG, NCAER, while presenting the join report of NCAER (New Delhi) and TCD (Chicago) stressed that there is an urgent need to regulate traditional river fishing methods by providing proper licensing services especially in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal where the Ganga is used by fisher folk for drinking, fishing, and bathing. The report urges that the fisher communities should be recognized as part of the river ecology, and that their indigenous knowledge be synchronized with scientific findings in order to improve water monitoring and control strategies. Moreover, these communities should also be included in river development and alternative skilling programmes in order to expand their economic options, says the report .
Union Water Resources Minister, Sh. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, also reputed the Ganga as foundation of India’s economic activity, and at ‘Ganga Utsav’ event (2021) said that the ‘NMCG has succeeded in bringing Ganga closer to the people and turning it into a Jan Andolan. Hundreds of thousands of people are helping to clean the Ganga. Previously, work on cleaning the Ganga was done in silos, and efforts were not conducted with the same zeal as they should have been’.
DG, NMCG, Mr. G. Ashok Kumar in a conversation with a TheStatesman reporter, highlighted his vision of ‘Arth Ganga’ and discussed how economic activities around Ganga may be developed to make the “Clean Ganga” mission long-term self-sustaining. For this objective, he said, NMCG has established the concept of ‘Earth Ganga,’ which aims to develop socio-economic activities along the river’s banks in order to generate jobs. The first stage is to promote zero-based natural farming in the river basin area by reducing chemical use in agriculture. He made the argument that freshwater fisheries would bring income to those who live along river banks, and that they would care for the river since it would supply them with revenue. To assure a higher price for fish, we are considering establishing cold storage facilities in specific locations. Furthermore, he also said we focused on the promotion of tourism by developing ghats and beautifying them .

Agriculture, afforestation and water conservation

The Ganga basin accounts for around 29.5% of India’s total cultivable area. Irrigation covers about 68% (20.2 million hectares) of the basin’s net planted area (29.57 million ha), an increase of 43% from 1962-65 to 2003-06 . Water is the primary motive as well as the prime limitation for agriculture. Rainwater harvesting, less water-intensive crops, climate-smart agricultural methods, water-saving farming techniques, and organic farming may all benefit from increased awareness and information sharing. With significant anthropogenic strain on water resources, it is critical to focus on water conservation and the efficient and effective use of water resources. Consequently, organic agricultural inputs, an effective irrigation system, and the economic cash crops might be useful. Concerning this, it was decided in an official NMCG meeting that a corridor of 5 - 7 km along the banks of Ganga should be developed for organic farming. Further, farmers along Ganga River should be encouraged to take up sustainable agriculture practices including Zero Budget Farming, and that there is also need to minimize water loss from water distribution systems through adoption of measures such as lined irrigation canals, covered aqueducts, leak-proof pressure valves in drinking water distribution system .
Who is more eligible than Padma Shri and Padma Bhusan Dr. Anil P Joshi, who by profession and passion is a revered environmentalist, green activist, and the founder of Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization, to comment on this topic? His work majorly includes developing sustainable technologies that are ecology inclusive economy for ecosystem development. Dr. Joshi says that ‘The genuine capital of a country is its natural resources’ and presented the concepts of GEP (gross environmental product) while contrasting this with the GDP (gross domestic product). He argues that GDP is too narrow a criterion for assessing a country’s total growth because it ignores the periodic state of soil, water, forest, and air. It should not be the only metric used to assess national progress, as the environment is rarely considered in it. He argues, we frequently forget that in agricultural nations like ours, where agriculture provides a living for more than 70% of the people, our subsistence pattern differs significantly from that of Western countries. He recognizes the paradox, that a nation’s needs economic growth while simultaneously ensuring its ecological needs; and he advised that a periodic examination of our ecological assets, such as forest cover, soil, and water bodies, be conducted for this to work. Gross Environmental Product (GEP), he believes is a concept that is inclusive of all of these .
Ex-Director, NMCG, Sh. Rajiv Ranjan Mishra also believes that a boost to organic farming is required, as he presented his case, saying that the rapid urbanization, removal of top soil (for brick laying, etc.), increasing population (75 million per year globally), conversion of prime crop land to urban use (3 million ha.), deforestation of alluvial regions, and alarming rates of water abstraction for Agri-purposes in the Ganga basin area have all been causing damage to aquatic flora and fauna. Mr. Mishra said that the NMCG is working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farming welfare to promote organic farming and improve farming techniques in order to alleviate these detrimental effects. He also recommended micro-irrigation techniques and flood irrigation instruction as ways to successfully reduce soil erosion in basin states .
The Chairman of consumer goods giant Patanjali Ayurved, Sh. Acharya Balkrishna, says ‘We can only rescue Ganga, her holiness, and the flow if we plant more trees while leaving the present ones alone and avoid polluting her with dangerous chemicals (insecticides and pesticides)’. Speaking at a ceremony ‘Clean Ganga - Rural Participation’ (2016), Acharya Je stated that ‘during older days one could readily see soil along the banks of the Ganga, but now that is all gone and all that is left is sand, which is also a matter of illicit mining these days. This has happened as a result of soil erosion caused by large-scale deforestation in the recent decades. As a solution, we may limit the use of pesticides for at least 1-2 kilometers along both sides of the Ganga’. He further talked of the shared responsibilities and says that these things must be worked out as a moral duty and as our commitments, since we are the part of the problem itself .
The banks of the Ganga are home to a diverse array of flower species. Climate, altitude, and Ganga water all contribute to the variety, which gives nutrients and conserves water by preventing soil erosion along the Ganga’s banks. Floral variety abounds from the Ganga’s headwaters to Rishikesh (Upper Ganga basin). From October to March, the source region is snow-covered for approximately six months, and during that period, numerous medicinal plants thrive there, hence the region is also known as alpine meadows. Below the alpine meadows (2200–2800 m), dense coniferous woodlands with a diverse range of species grow. The most prevalent species are deodar, spruce, cedar, and fir. Mixed-oak woodlands border coniferous forests (1800–2200 m). Pine woods may be found between 1100 and 1800 meters above sea level. Monsoon deciduous woods thrive below 1100 m (Shivalik hills) (Sati, 2020). Figure 4 depicts the Ganga Basin regions as per the biodiversity and some dominant vegetation found in this area.