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

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
BENEFITS BEYOND RIVERS AND FARMERS
It would be pertinent to point out that this solution of providing a
green cover in a corridor along the length of the river not only serves to
achieve the objective of revitalizing the river, and providing enhanced
livelihood to poor farmers, but also goes a long way in helping achieve two
other national priorities, as described below.
4 MILLION HECTARES OF GREEN COVER; 13% OF NATIONAL ASPIRATION 51
While the national aspiration is to have 33% of the land under
permanent green cover, as of 2015 only 21.3% is under tree cover.
Therefore, India’s deficit in tree cover is currently at 30 million hectares.
In that context, bringing tree cover to either side of a 1000 km
river line will increase the green cover by 2 lakh hectares. India has a
river-line length of around 20,000 km and therefore has the potential of
creating an additional green cover on 4 million hectares of land – thereby
making a significant 13% impact on the deficit in the overall green cover
enhancement target. 52
IMPROVED HEALTH STATUS OF POPULATION
Fruits and Vegetables (F&V) will improve the health of the larger
society in India. India has a dual burden of non-communicable diseases
on one end of the spectrum, and malnutrition-related mortality and
morbidity, on the other end.
Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) accounted for at least 50%
of all deaths worldwide in 2005 and were projected to increase to more
than 60% by 2015. These NCDs include cardiovascular diseases (CVDs),
diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases, the major brunt of
which are being borne by developing countries like India.
Poor consumption of F&Vs is one important factor linked with
NCDs, which are considered as the sixth main risk factor for mortality in
the world. Overall, it is estimated that low F&V intake is attributable to
approximately 2.7 million (4.9%) annual deaths and 26.7 million (1.8%)
Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), and causes about 31% of Ischaemic
Heart Diseases (IHD), 11% of strokes and 19% of gastro-intestinal cancers.
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