SAVE THE RIVER GANGA CAMPAIGN
Inter-governmental panel on climate change reports a considerable shortage of water in all river basins of India by the year 2025. World Watch Institute predicts that the Ganges and other rivers in heavily populated India will run dry for a part or all of the dry season by the year 2025.

Keeping the above threats on front, Tarun Bharat Sangh under the leadership of Dr G.D.Agarwal (Vice Chairman of TBS) launched a nation-wide campaign to maintain an unaffected flow of the river Bhagirathi in Uttarakhand. Dr G.D. Agarwal twice went on “fast-onto-death” to oppose the government polices to dam the river for power projects. To support the “fast-onto-death” TBS mobilized religious leaders, environmentalists, media persons, political parties, engineers, NGOs, social activists etc to highlight the importance of pollution and encroachment free flow of River Ganga.

The campaign highlighted the destruction of River Ganga by badly thought out projects undertaken by the central and state governments. This prompted the scientists and engineers of the country to review their current knowledge base and approach towards the management of Himalayan Rivers. Moreover, and High Level Expert Group (HLEG) constituted on an order of the Union Power Ministry, to determine the flow required to keep the Bhagirathi river ‘alive and to ensure perennial environmental flow in the river’ and agreed to release 16 cumecs of water flow from Maneri I and II hydropower projects. The ministry also assured no other project would come up on the Bhagirathi.

Recently, Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh while addressing at the National Conference of Ministers of Environment & Forests said “...Our country is blessed with mighty rivers that are inextricably linked with our history, our religious beliefs, our culture and our customs of our people. It is a matter of great concern therefore that we have not been able to reverse the degradation of this very important natural inheritance. We have decided to adopt a different and more holistic approach taking the river and not the city as the unit of planning as we have done until now. The essence of this approach is not just to focus on river pollution but more comprehensively on catchment area treatment, protection of flood plains, ensuring ecological flows and restoration of the river ecosystem...”

The campaign compelled the Government of India (on February, 2009) to designate River Ganga as National river.

The government also notified the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGBRA) as an empowered planning, financing monitoring and co-coordinating authority for the Ganga under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. It will, thus ensure, that the development requirements (such as construction of hydropower projects) are met in a sustainable manner while ensuring ecological flows. The NGBRA would be responsible for addressing the problem of pollution in the Ganga in a holistic and comprehensive manner. This will include water quality, minimum ecological flows, sustainable access and other issues relevant to river ecology and management. Under the new approach, the river basin will be the unit of planning.

APPREHENSION OF TBS ON NGBRA
Though the NGBRA is good initiative but the TBS is apprehensive about the performance of the NGBRA and rose following issues that may hamper the effective functioning of NGBRA and thus affect the objectives of pollution and encroachment free Ganga. The criticisms are as follows:
• NGRBA uses the term ‘ecological flow’ that means maintaining adequate water flow in the river just for its ecological health. The NGRBA should have used the term ‘environmental flow’, which also accounts for human needs such as groundwater recharge potential of the river.

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