Revitalization of Rivers in India Draft Policy - Isha Guru Jaggi Vasudev

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
government owned river banks – which constitute roughly 40% of the
river length. 9
The river bank also needs to be protected through non-engineering
measures such as through growth of suitable vegetation and grasses that
would hold water in soil in their root zone and prevent scouring erosion
and sloughing of river bank. Grassland vegetation like vetiver can be used
to strengthen the river banks and arrest floods too. For example, Vetiver
System (VS) developed by Vetiver Network International, is based on the
application of genotypes closely related to only the south Indian variety
of vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides) The extraordinary characteristics
of vetiver offer many livelihood related options to farmers, and also offer
a multitude of practical, inexpensive, low maintenance and very effective
bio-engineering techniques for steep slope stabilization, wastewater
disposal, phyto-remediation of contaminated land and water, and other
environmental protection purposes ranging from soil erosion control,
groundwater recharge and water conservation, embankment protection
during floods, etc. A note on the various benefits of vetiver as a shrub that
can be used to protect banks is available in Annexure 13.
Out of the total riverside land area available, if we take a stretch
of 1000 kilometers (2,00,000 hectares) of river length – of single or
composite of sections of different rivers – it is assumed that endemic
tree species in afforestation areas will cover 40% of the available area,
i.e. 80,000 hectares. This includes both government forest land, and
government river bank land.
The type of trees to be planted depends on the kind of soil in the
concerned area. Recommended species for different soil types are as given
in Table 1. This is a non-exhaustive list; there can be more varieties of
trees that can be added to the list as needed:
117