Rivers have always been the bedrock of our civilization and the lifelines of India. But in just one generation, most of our rivers have suffered dangerous levels of depletion. For a nation with 1.3 billion people, we cannot turn a blind eye to this grave crisis of our times.” Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.
Sadhguru will drive from Kanyakumari to the Himalayas in September to create awareness for the urgent need to save rivers from extinction. He has warned that without a mass movement 25% of India is turning into desert. “This is a culture that never saw rivers and water as a commodity. We realized that this was a fundamental building block of life,” he said.
The rally is only the beginning. Isha Foundation is proposing a comprehensive river rejuvenation plan to reverse this decline and revive major Indian rivers. The main proposal is to plant trees around 1 KM along the rivers. Native forest trees would be planted in government-owned land along riverbanks. Organic fruit tree cultivation would be taken up on private farmers’ lands. This solution ensures that rivers are restored while also enhancing famers’ livelihood by more than doubling their income in five years. The availability of fruit also improves nutritional intake among people.
The rally will be flagged off from Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore on September 3 and culminate in Delhi on October 2, covering 13 states and 21 major cities. Sadhguru will be driving this entire stretch of 6560 km across India.
Project GreenHands (PGH) is a grassroots ecological initiative of Isha Foundation that has, since its inception on June 5 2004, enabled the planting of more than 25 million saplings by over 2 million volunteers across South India.
http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/sadhguru/spot/saving-indias-lifeline-why-rivers-need-trees/
