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

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
BOX 1: PROJECT GREENHANDS OF ISHA FOUNDATION,
ITS JOURNEY AND NURSERIES
In the early 2000s, an agency of the U.N. conducted a survey in the state of
Tamil Nadu and predicted that 60% of the state would turn into a desert by
2025. Sadhguru decided to check up on this prediction and travelled around
Tamil Nadu. He saw that the state was headed towards desertification much
more rapidly than the U.N. prediction. The green cover of Tamil Nadu was only
17% and 11.4 crore trees needed to be planted to increase the green cover to the
required green cover of 33%
Realizing the profound ecological problems occurring in the state of Tamil
Nadu, Sadhguru applied his unique approach to the problem. He saw that the
population of Tamil Nadu was 6 crore If each one planted two trees and tended
to them, within 10 years, they would have 11.4 crore and our vision would come
true. Even the poorest of the poor are in a position to nurture two saplings, and
the rich and the resourceful have the ability to do much more. Therefore the
whole effort of PGH is primarily to plant trees in people’s minds first.
With this background, Project GreenHands (PGH) was launched in 2005 as an
inspiring grassroots ecological initiative. The first project was the rehabilitation
of the Tsunami affected coastal area where PGH planted 25,000 trees with the
community participation.
In 2006, as a first step, to raise awareness and to establish a public profile, PGH
undertook the seemingly insurmountable task of planting seven lakh saplings
across the state of Tamil Nadu in just one day. From the very beginning PGH
understood that” Awareness generation with action” should be the way to have
results A mass tree planting marathon was held on October 17, 2006 where over
200,000 volunteers planted 852,587 saplings in every district of Tamil Nadu in a
day resulting in the setting of a Guinness World Record. But unlike other records
and record holders, this is one record that PGH will be glad to see broken.
PGH received a wave of public, corporate and government support. PGH has over
the years, built on this foundation of support to reach out to communities and
people across the country. Starting from the geographical land area of Tamil
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