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

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
stretch on either sides of the river. The technical sturdiness of this
solution has been vouched for by experts from various fields including:
policy making, hydrogeology, forestry, natural resource management, soil
science, horticulture, micro-irrigation, veterinary science, Farmer Producer
Organizations, agri-business, agri-marketing, senior level bureaucrats,
project financing, social behavior, farmers’ union leadership, health and
nutrition, and from the Food Safety and Standards Authority. While they all
gave feedback about different details of the solution – which we fine-tuned
accordingly – all were in agreement that the fundamental approach of tree
plantation is a feasible and effective solution.
Implementing this solution requires: mass awareness of the
problem among citizens; development of national and state level policies
detailing how to revitalize our rivers; and translation of these policies into
programs. This book articulates how to revitalize rivers – technically and
practically, based on certain fundamental principles, and also provides a
broad implementation framework.
The book is divided into four chapters along with a set of Annexures
that contain papers and contributions from many experts. The content
of the book draws from our experiences of tree plantation, bettering
farmers’ livelihoods and expert contributions (some of which are
presented in the annexures). The book is structured as – Chapter
1: Defining the problem and its root causes; Chapter 2: Assessing
the technical strength and appropriateness of the solution, i.e. tree
plantation and efficient irrigation; Chapter 3: A detailed techno-economic
plan of tree plantation for public and farm lands and the required policy
support system to assess the principle stakeholders in the adaptation
of a solution; finally Chapter 4: The implementation framework for the
techno-economic solution and the regulatory framework required to
control pollution and misuse.
CHAPTER 1: INDIAN RIVERS. This chapter describes the change in
people’s attitude towards rivers, from reverence to apathy, and the
reasons behind it. This change in attitude translated into action that
has been detrimental to rivers – deforestation on river banks, over-
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