India proposes river rejuvenation through plantations

India proposes river rejuvenation through plantations

Subject: Environment

Section: Biodiversity and conservation

Context: The government of India has recently released a river rejuvenation programme worth Rs. 193 billion through a massive focus on plantation activities.

Concept:

About the Programme:

• Government of India is planning an ambitious programme for the rejuvenation of 13 major Indian rivers through forestry interventions at a cost of nearly Rs. 19,300 crores (Rs. 193 billion).
  • 13 major rivers include – Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, Sutlej, Yamuna, Brahmaputra, Luni, Narmada, Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna, and Cauvery
• Funded by the National Afforestation & Eco-development Board of the environment ministry (MoEFCC), were prepared by the Dehradun-based Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education (ICFRE).
• The programme is expected to be executed through the state forest departments as nodal department and with the convergence of schemes of other line departments in the states towards the activities proposed in the DPRs and funding support from the government of India.
• The plan is proposed to be spread over a period of five years with a provision for additional time for the maintenance of plantations.

Need for the Programme:

• Deforestation and forest degradation, scanty rainfall, flash floods, landslides, bank erosion, faulty agriculture and horticulture practices, soil erosion, excessive groundwater extraction, rapid urbanisation, unregulated floodplain, waste dumping, the release of effluents, unregulated tourism, pilgrimage, unregulated sand mining, and riverbank encroachment are some of the issues that are impacting the rivers in the country.
• Forest and river ecosystems are inter-connected and forests absorb rainfall, leads to slow runoff, regulate the hydrological cycle, reduce soil erosion, improve water infiltration rate, recharge aquifers, etc.

Intervention through the Programme:

• Activities such as afforestation, soil and moisture conservation structures, grassland and pasture development, cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants, management of invasive and alien species, forest fires while in agricultural landscapes it proposes agroforestry (bund and block plantations), high-density plantations, fodder plantations and plantation of fruit trees.
• In the urban landscapes, they call for riverfront development, eco-park development, industrial and educational estate plantations, and avenue plantations.
• Also includes removal of lantana from degraded forests

Benefits of Programme:

• Increasing the green cover
  • DPRs projects forest cover after the programme could be about 7,417.36 square kilometres
• Sequestering carbon dioxide
  • carbon-dioxide sequestration to the tune of 50.21 million tons of CO2 equivalent after 10 years and 74.76 million tons of CO2 equivalent after 20 years.
• Recharging water table
  • programme would lead to about 1,889.89 million cubic metres of groundwater recharge every year
• Containing soil erosion
  • Sedimentation reduction of about 64,83,114 cubic metres every year
• Help India achieving the international climate commitments
  • such as the creation of an additional carbon sink of 2.5 -3 billion tons of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030 made just before the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, restoration of 26 million hectares of degraded lands by 2030 as a land degradation neutrality target under UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) and halting the biodiversity loss by 2030 under CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) and Sustainable Development Goals.

Issues:

• Top-down approach that even usurps the powers of the states
  • As per the Forest Rights Act 2006, the power to decide what happens on their landscapes belongs to the communities.
• Proposal completely unscientific as afforestation has nothing to do with river rejuvenation
  • Construction of big dams and then many smaller dams that cut off environmental flows, industrial and domestic pollution, and climate change-led glacier meltdown and extreme weather events are main reasons for degradation of river

Way Forward:

Stopping dam building, regulating effluents, controlling groundwater depletion that immediately affects the base flows in rivers