The Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the workshop on River Ganga in New Delhi.
- The theme of the workshop was ‘Ganga and its biodiversity: Developing a road map for habitat and Species conservation’.
- The workshop was organized by the WWF (World Wildlife Fund).
- A report on ‘Status of conservation of select aquatic species’ was also released during the workshop.
- He also was a database of Ganga Praharis, a self-motivated cadre that is being created by Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
- Ganga Paharis are a self motivated volunteer cadre from local communities who have been trained and taken onboard by National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and WWF to make Clean Ganga Mission a mass movement.
- A clean Ganga will not only be helpful for the environment but will also boost our economy.
- Nitin Gadkari emphasized the need to approach the challenges of cleaning river Ganga through an integrated approach and with synergy between development and ecology.
- Activities like plantation on the river bank, boating, construction of Mukti Dhams and Ghats will be increased.
- This will increase employment opportunities and will mobilize public participation of the local residents in the task of cleaning Ganga.
