Impact of Forestry Interventions on Groundwater Recharge and Sediment Control in the Ganga River Basin ()
ABSTRACT
Water related services of natural infrastructure
will help to combat the risk of water crisis, and nature-based solutions involve the management
of ecosystems to mimic or optimize the natural processes for the provision and
regulation of water. Forested areas provide
environmental stability and supply a high proportion of the world’s accessible
freshwater for domestic, agricultural, industrial and ecological needs. The
present work on “Forestry Interventions for Ganga” to rejuvenate the river is
one of the steps toward the Ganga River rejuvenation programme in the country. The
consequences of forestry interventions for Ganga will be determined on the
basis of water quantity and water quality in the Ganga River. The study conservatively estimated the water savings
and sedimentation reduction of the riverscape management in the Ganga basin
using the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) & GEC, 2015 and Trimble,
1999 & CWC, 2019 methodologies, respectively. Forestry
plantations and soil and moisture conservation measures devised in the
programme to rejuvenate the Ganga River are expected to increase water recharge
and decrease sedimentation load by 231.011 MCM·yr-1 and 1119.6 cubic m·yr-1 or 395.20 tons·yr-1, respectively, in
delineated riverscape area of 83,946 km2 in Ganga basin due to these
interventions. The role of trees and
forests in improving hydrologic cycles, soil infiltration and ground water
recharge in Ganga basin seems to be the reason for this change. Forest
plantations and other bioengineering techniques can help to keep rivers
perennial, increase precipitation, prevent soil erosion and mitigate floods,
drought & climate change. The bioengineering
techniques could be a feasible tool to enhance rivers’ self-purification as
well as to make river perennial. The results will
give momentum to the National Mission of Clean Ganga (NMCG) and its Namami
Gange programme including other important rivers in the country and
provide inputs in understanding the linkages among forest structure, function,
and streamflow.
Share and Cite:
Singh, O. , Kar, S. and Reddy, N. (2023) Impact of Forestry Interventions on Groundwater Recharge and Sediment Control in the Ganga River Basin.
Open Journal of Forestry,
13, 13-31. doi:
10.4236/ojf.2023.131002.