ABSTRACT
Rivers have been degraded globally due to various
reasons over centuries and limiting their
ecological health and value, including Ganga River in India. Riverscape
approach can provide relevant information on riverine resources needed
in river restoration programmes. We propose a
conceptual riverscape model to rejuvenate the holy river Ganga in India through
forestry interventions after due consideration of ecological processes, mosaic
of landforms, communities and environment within the large landscape of Ganga
basin. The select
riverscape area includes the area of 5 km and 2 km on either side of the river Ganga and important tributaries, respectively, all
along the rivers in five stakeholder
states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal
in the country. The width of the riverscape was taken from the maximum bank
line in recent years on either side of river in the concerned state. However,
all micro-watersheds in the hills of Uttarakhand state, being the origin place
of river, have been included in riverscape area up to Haridwar. Here riverscape
is a mosaic of different land uses viz., natural ecosystems, rural and agricultural ecosystems and built-up urban
environment including flood plain and is an ecologically sustained
system developed during the last 30 years due to river meandering all along the
river. Geospatial modelling and GIS data on land use pattern, soil erosion
rates, slope of the topography, etc. were used to classify riverscape area into
high, medium and low priority areas to implement forestry interventions in
delineated riverscape. Thereafter, forestry interventions were planned and
carried out in three identified landscapes viz., Natural (forests), Agriculture
(agroforestry), and Urban along with conservation activities. Forestry
interventions in delineated riverscape are expected to increase water recharge and decrease the sedimentation load in the Ganga River and its
tributaries.