Source: Press Information Bureau
The Jal Shakti Minister launched Ganga Aamantran – a unique initiative to connect with Ganga’s Stakeholders
What is it?
The ‘Ganga Aamantran Abhiyan’ is a pioneering and historic exploratory open-water rafting and kayaking expedition on the Ganga River to be held between 10th October 2019 to 11 November 2019. Starting at Devprayag and culminating at Ganga Sagar, the expedition will cover the entire stretch of over 2500 km of the Ganga River.
Key highlights
- This is the first-ever effort by National Mission for Clean Ganga to raft across the entire stretch of the river and also the longest ever social campaign undertaken through an adventure sporting activity to spread the message of River Rejuvenation and Water Conservation on a massive scale.
- The expedition will draw attention to the ecological challenges being faced by Ganga.
- The expedition will encompass the five Ganga basin states including Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal with stops at Rishikesh, Haridwar, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Sonepur and Kolkata.
- A nine-member team of swimmer and rafters from the three Services of the Indian Armed Forces, led by acclaimed international open-water swimmer Wg Cdr Paramvir Singh is being launched in New Delhi by Union Minister of Jal Shakti. This nine-member team would be joined by 3 members from NDRF, 2 members each from WII(Wildlife Institute of India) and CSIR-IITR.
- The team, during the expedition, will take up public awareness campaigns on the locations at which they will stop. They will organize mass cleaning drives, interact with students of the village/city and will further the message of river conservation.
- Apart from the awareness campaign, the team from CSIR–Indian Institute of Toxicology Research will collect water samples from across diverse ranges of the river for the purpose of water testing, while members of the Wildlife Institute of India will undertake flora and fauna census for the year 2019.
- The Expedition would comprise of members primarily from the Indian Armed Forces.
- The Armed Forces are supporting this expedition extensively by way of involving all the Commands & Units on the Ganga stretch and also the members from the Armed Forces Wives Welfare Association all along the Ganga Basin.
- The expedition will be supported by all the stakeholders of Namami Gange including the MPs of the constituency along Ganga, members of Ganga Praharis, Ganga Vichar Manch among others.
- The expedition is aimed to reach millions of people on Ganga Basin and would be the largest social outreach through an adventure sporting event ever.
