NITI Aayog experts group urges plan to save Himalayan springs
3rd September, 2018Category:
The group of experts constituted by NITI Aayog has urged the government to set up a dedicated mission to salvage and revive spring water systems in the country’s Himalayan States. The task force moots an 8-year programme to overhaul spring water management. This includes: preparing a digital atlas of the country’s springsheds, training ‘para-hydrogeologists’ who could lead grassroots conservation and introduction of a ‘Spring Health Card.’
Spanning States across the country’s north and northeast are home to about 50 million people. Almost 64% of the cultivable area in the Himalayas is fed by natural springs. With over 60,000 villages and growing urbanization, the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) has been heavily reliant on natural groundwater sources. Almost 60% of low-discharge springs that provided water to small habitations in the Himalayan region have reported clear decline during the last couple of decades.
NITI Aayog, the National Institution for Transforming India is a Government of India policy, established to replace the Planning Commission. Established on January 1, 2015, its first meeting was held on February 8, 2015, with the Prime Minister as its Ex-offico Chairman.