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

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
A river’s catchment area encompasses hundreds of square
kilometers. The entire catchment may be a composite of smaller
catchment zones called watersheds. A watershed is an area of land that
contains a common set of streams and rivers that all drain into a single
larger body of water, such as a larger river, a lake or an ocean. 6
A watershed is usually the unit of operation when any sustainable
work to revitalize rivers and underground aquifers is envisioned. The
revitalization of a river or any other water body is a byproduct of a revived
watershed. Integrated watershed management (IWM) is a continuous and
adaptive process of managing human activities in an ecosystem, within
a defined watershed. It involves the integration of environmental, social
and economic decisions and activities through an inclusive decision
making process to manage the protection, conservation, restoration and
enhancement of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem features, functions and
linkages. 7 This approach involves working on the land, soil fertility and
augmentation of fresh water sources.
Integrated Watershed Management (IWM) is a holistic approach
which theoretically and technically is the soundest means to revitalize
rivers.
The watershed management approach has been followed in India
since the 1970s. Till the early 1990s watershed development had been
implemented in a fragmented manner by various departments without
any planning on watershed basis by involving communities. In 1994,
the Technical Committee on Drought-Prone Areas (Hanumantha Rao
Committee) formulated a set of guidelines that brought the Desert
Development Programme (DDP), Drought Prone Areas Programme
(DPAP) and Integrated Wastelands Management Programme under one
umbrella. Then in 2009, Government of India initiated an Integrated
Watershed Management Programme, integrating DPAP, DDP and
Integrated Wastelands Management Program. 8 The Integrated Watershed
Management Programme is implemented across most rain-fed areas to
help revive the water resources that were otherwise being depleted due to
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