Guardians chosen to clean up garbage from Ganges river
NEWDELHI: To conserve the ecological integrity of the Ganga, and reduce the direct dependency of the local communities on the river, we are involving members of the local community...
DR RUCHI BADOLA, Scientist
Every morning, Ramashankar Singh (47) and his friends start their day taking garbage out of the Ganga at LTC Ghat in Bihar’s Bhagalpur, much before the first pilgrim or tourist makes an appearance.
For over a year, twice a week, the boatman, who also works with the forest department, has been cleaning the river along with his wife Sunita Devi and daughter Bharti Kumar, a BSc Chemistry honours student. While he collected garbage in the water, the mother and daughter cleaned the ghats.
“Ganga is our mother. It is not just a matter of faith, but also livelihood. So keeping it clean has become my mission,” he said.
The family is part of Ganga Praharis, or Guardians of Ganga — a group of self-motivated local volunteers drawn from the communities living along the river, working as guards, cleaners and environmentalist 24x7, as part of a joint project by the NMCGWildlife Institute of India (WII), helping the government in its mission to clean the Ganga.
The group has not only taken charge of the water dustbins along the river but has also installed a fish net next to the ghats to stop garbage from flowing into the water.
Identified by officials of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and trained for a few days, the group started with three volunteers and now has 427 registered ‘Guardians’ in five states — UP, Uttrakhand, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand — through which the river flows.
Bhagalpur alone has 60 people, while Uttar Pradesh leads the table with 214 followed by Uttrakhand with 80, Bihar 61, West Bengal 51 and Jharkhand 23.
Calling himself ‘pani ka kisaan (water farmer)’, Dashrath Sahni, a fisherman who is part of the Bhagalpur group, said, “My family and I are alive because of the bounty of the river. If we let the river die, we will die with it.”
Sahni not only cleans the Ganga, but is also vocal in his efforts to save the endangered Ganges Dolphin.
“The net used after construction of Farakka Barrage (in Murshidabad of West Bengal) is stopping smaller fish from coming into the mainstream Ganga, affecting not only the dolphins, but also our livelihood,” he pointed out.
Efforts to reduce river pollution have revived the dwindling population of the freshwater mammal. As many as 110 dolphins were spotted in a 90-km stretch from Kaushambi to Handia in a dolphin population mapping project last year.
Dr Ruchi Badola, scientist and head of department Eco-development Planning and Participatory Management of WII, noted that the biodiversity of the Ganges is under stress due to reduced water availability, habitat degradation, pollution, and unsustainable resource extraction.
“To conserve the ecological integrity of the Ganga, and reduce the direct dependency of the local communities on the river, we are involving members of the local community in the five Ganga states as guardians of the river,” she said.
The aim of this initiative is to establish a motivated cadre to support institutions and monitor quality of the natural resources of the river by mobilising local communities at the grassroots level, Dr Badola said.
“We are creating awareness and want the communities to have a sense of belongingness towards the Ganga. We try to link the local communities and their livelihood with overall efforts of various grassroot level efforts,’’ she said.