A consensus is emerging among the States and across the political spectrum to save once perennial rivers that became seasonal now under the ‘Rally for Rivers’ to generate awareness among the people, said founder of Isha Foundation Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev here on Wednesday.
Sadguru Vasudev who has conceived and is leading the Rally for Rivers that was flagged off from Coimbatore by Union Minister of Environment and Forest Harsh Vardhan on September 3 said the rally covered six States and 4,000 km so far. The rally that would cover 16 States and 7,000 km by October 2 had been getting tremendous support from the people on the streets, farmers and children and chief ministers.
Last chance now
“Getting everyone’s concurrence to save the rivers is the biggest achievement so far in the comprehensive policy to restore the depleting rivers. The policy if implemented now will take at least 20 to 25 years to see 20 to 25 % rise in the water level in the rivers. This is our last chance to turnaround the rivers,” he said.
Mr. Jaggi Vasudev, who drove from Vijayawada to Hyderabad as part of the Rally, said a policy document of 650 pages would be presented to the Centre, States, media, environmentalists and scientists to seek their suggestions for rejuvenation of rivers. “The draft policy is designed to benefit all the stakeholders beginning with the river, life sustained by the river — flora and fauna, people, cities, governments, local bodies and the industry,” he said.
Tree cover
“What will emerge through this also will be an economic policy to make agriculture profitable with ecological impact. This is an effort to marry science with political process,”, he said at the media interaction here ahead of an event here on Thursday.
The draft policy recommends a tree cover up to a depth of one km on either side of the rivers, forest trees on government land and fruit trees on farm lands to ensure that moisture in the soil and the air feeds the rivers throughout the year, he said.
Mitigate floods
Explaining the objective behind saving rivers through tree plantation, Sadguru said trees would keep rivers perennial, mitigate floods and drought, increase precipitation and added that the two Telugu States were making good progress in enhancing tree cover.
