Ganga Conservation

The Ganges is under several natural as well as anthropogenic threats. Our conception of conservation is not confined to a ‘clean ganga’ but goes much beyond it. The growing pollution is although the foremost issue that is threatening the ecological health of the river but issues like over extraction of water, construction of dams , shrinking of glaciers and last but not the least ever increasing ‘population pressure’ on the river need to be addressed in the conservation policy. The Ganga basin is one of the most populous regions of the world and also one of the oldest inhabited basins on the earth. Sustainable management of the river will depend on balancing all these factors and any technical plan is unlikely to work efficiently in absence of a clear conservation policy based on public participation. The public participation in conservation although is always advocated in conservation plans but in reality remains of poor quality and quantity. We propose and advocate a meaningful way for Non- State actors to participate in conservation plans through developing their technical and institutional capacity. We wish to make river conservation a subject of interest to common people through various scientific and recreational activities to generate a caring attitude among people for rivers in particular and for the nature in general.The ‘pollution’ of the Ganges   is relatively a much narrower concept then its ‘conservation’ but abating pollution is not doubt our first priority. The Ganga is still source of drinking water for communities living along its course and it is associated with centuries old Indian traditions. In fact none of the rituals of Hindus is complete without few drops of the Ganga water (Ganga-jal) and pollution is creating a state of dilemma among people. The water being ‘pollution’ and ‘sacred’ at the same time is creating numerous cultural dilemmas among educated Indians.