Thames trust to help conserve Ganga, Yamuna (The Hindu 27 November 2011)

The initiative to be launched in New Delhi on December 15
JAIPUR: If the Ganga cannot go to Britain for its own “holy” reasons, it is the Thames now poised to join India's most revered river for the sake of conservation.
The Thames River Restoration Trust (TRRT), winner of the Theis International River Prize for 2010, has tied up with Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Peace Institute Charitable Trust (PICT) to work for restoration of a 300-km stretch of the Ganga and the Yamuna on both sides of the banks. The United Kingdom's Environment Agency Thames Region (EA) will provide guidance in the endeavour.
Decks have been cleared for the initiative and the formal launch will take place at the WWF premises in New Delhi on December 15. Robert Oates, Director of the Thames River Restoration Trust (TRRT), will pilot the project. Peter Spillett, President of the Institute of Fisheries Management, UK, will give the keynote presentation on ‘Restoring fish population around the world to benefit people and wildlife' on the occasion.
It all started with TRRT winning the Theiss International River Prize. The prize money, more than Rs.1-crore, was to be put to use in a developing country. India came up as the eventual decision following Mr. Oates' visit to a few river-sites up north of New Delhi. It will be a one-and-a-half-year-long work on restoring portions of the Ganges and its tributary, Yamuna.
About 100 km along the upper Ganga and about 200 km along the Yamuna, including its nearly 35 km stretch from the Chambal river confluence to Dibholi Ghat which forms the National Chambal Sanctuary, would be taken up, informs conservationist Harsh Vardhan who had invited Mr. Oates sometime back to the Mansagar Birding Fair here to speak on Thames restoration and the possibility of replication of the success story on India's polluted rivers.
“ I had met Rob several years ago at the British Bird Watching Fair. The river-twinning idea was floated when Rob led the Birding Fair in Jaipur two years ago when he was expecting the Theiss Prize from Australia,” Mr. Vardhan notes. In fact when this correspondent met Mr. Oates in Jaipur that time he was not pessimistic over state of India's rivers as he felt it was part of the industrialisation process, faced in Britain a century ago, now being faced by India.
The WWF on its part will carry forward its existing project on the Ganga conservation, through the new inputs now available, at Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh to reintroduce the endangered gharial and other wildlife. It will also help people to improve their agricultural policies, says Parikshit Gautam, Director, WWF's Freshwater Division.
The long-term plan is to ensure a viable population of gharial with favourable habitat through increased capacity support from local people. It will also benefit fish population, fresh water turtles, Ganges river dolphins and other riverine species like otters and water birds in the lower Yamuna.
‘River-twinning'
The PICT will join in for developing community river restoration techniques in association with local groups and develop sustainable livelihoods. Its activities will be carried out in different 10 grids located along the Yamuna, in regions falling in Uttarakhand, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Dr. Gautam, Director, along with Manoj Mishra, Director of PICT, will overview the novel “river-twinning” project. Both will give and take river restoration related technical expertise and experiences with TRRT in Britain.
• 100 km along the Ganga, 200 km along the Yamuna would be taken up for restoration
• Long-term benefits include a viable population of gharial, fish population, turtles