Ganga Vriksharopan Abhiyan

 National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) had organised Ganga Vriksharopan Abhiyan in five main Ganga basin states – Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.The drive was launched on 9th July 2018 for a week upto 15 July 2018 which was observed as ‘Shubharambh Saptah’.

Background :-

Ganga Vriksharopan Abhiyan was initiated as part of Forest Interventions in Ganga (FIG) component of Namami Gange programme. This campaign is particularly concerned with the afforestration path and is also dedicated in awareness campaign on the benefits of the afforestration among the stakeholders.

The states' forest departments of these five states acted as the nodal agency for the implementation of the campaign.It also saw participation from Ganga Vichar Manch (GVM), Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), NGOs and educational institutions.

Under this campaign, number of schools, colleges and departments were requested to “Adopt a Plant” for making it people’s movement. Besides, various seminars, lectures etc were a charcterstics of the campaign.

Few trees that were planted under the campaign were :- Kanji, Siras, Chhitvan, Mango, Sheesham, Farmis, Jamun, Arjun, Gutal, Neem, Sagwan, Saal, Mahogni, Ber, Semal, Jungal Jalebi, Gulmohar, Kadam, Bamboo, etc

Benefits of Afforestation :-

The benefits that the awareness campaign puts forward are too many. Few of them are:-

• Forests cause higher rainfall and raise water level in the river basins.
• Through their foliage, abundant leaf litter and craggy bark, trees and forests decrease speed of water dispersion. It favours slow but greater infiltration of rainwater to ensure smooth functioning of hydrological cycle.
• Presence of healthy forest cover along river provides self-cleaning ability to river. Thus, afforestation and augmentation of existing forest cover along Ganga River holds promise to strengthen riparian ecosystem thereby contributing to cause of Ganga Rejuvention.

National Mission for Clean Ganga:

NMCG is implementation wing of National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection and Management of River Ganga (also referred as National Ganga Council).It has a two tier management structure and comprises of Governing Council and Executive Committee. Both of them are headed by Director General (DG), NMCG. Executive Committee is authorized to approve projects under mission up to Rs.1000 crore.

By: Shashank Shekhar