Rally for Rivers Surges Ahead

In a democratic system, unless there is substantial support and demand from the people, a policy to revitalize rivers cannot be brought into action effectively. In this context, Rally for Rivers (RfR) was conceived to garner massive public support for such a policy and to urge the government into immediate action.

After the culmination of the Rally, the PMO had formed an executive committee spearheaded by NITI Aayog, which discussed technical details of the recommendations with the RfR team to come up with an actionable plan. A little over 6 months later, on June 6, 2018, NITI Aayog made a nationwide policy pronouncement mentioning Isha Foundation, and sent an advisory on river revitalization to all 29 states recommending that the states implement the policy.

July:

Project Report Presented to Maharashtra Govt.

Third National RfR Board Meeting

July 22, 2018, Bangalore:The Prominent Rally for Rivers Board Members include Justice Arijit Pasayat, retired Supreme Court Judge; Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson & Managing Director of Biocon; Mr. Ravi Singh, Secretary General & CEO of World Wide Fund for Nature - India; Mr. Shashi Shekhar, IAS (retired) former Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India; Mr. Pravesh Sharma, IAS (retired) , who last served as MD of Small Farmer’s Agribusiness Consortium in the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India; Mr. B Muthuraman, former Vice Chairman, Tata Steel; Dr AS Kiran Kumar, former chairperson of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

August:

Green Light for the first Rally for Rivers pilot project

On August 8th, 2018 the government of Maharashtra gave an in-principle approval for a Detailed Project Report made by Nadi Veeras.

September:

Rally for Rivers Completes One Year

Since its inception in September 2017, Rally for Rivers has crossed many milestones to become the largest ecological movement in the world.

October:

Nadi Veeras Reach Across the Nation

Karnataka: From October 1st to October 14th, the Karnataka team conducted a baseline survey in 3 districts for the Kaveri revitalization project.

During the visit to Karnataka, the RfR team met forest range officers, forest watchers, farmers and tribal communities, to collect data in order to understand the present condition of the forests in Mysore, Kodagu, and Chamrajanagara districts and the possibilities for afforestation.

Rally for Rivers has been active in the first 6 states that signed MoUs

Besides ongoing work in Maharashtra and Karnataka, the RfR teams travelled to Assam, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat for initial exposure and data collection towards river selection.

November:

Rally for Rivers at Geneva Peace Week

December:

Fourth National Board Meeting - Setting New Horizons

Rally for Rivers board meets senior officials of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Delhi to discuss the next steps to save the rivers and make India a sustainable and progressive nation.

Finishing the Year Strong & Big Plans for 2019 

The implementation of pilot projects to support the Government of Karnataka to plant 250 million trees in the Kaveri river basin is being planned.

The Maharashtra pilot aiming to raise farmers’ income 3-7 times through interventions like agro-horti-forestry, soil and water conservation and community micro-irrigation, will continue to cover more ground. The plan for the creation of a model village and Mega-FPO, aggregating 25,000+ farmers in Tamil Nadu will unfold further.

Editor’s Note: We are looking forward to a major scaling up in on-ground action in 2019. Join us and become a part of the driving force. Register to volunteer full-time at RallyforRivers.org