75 eco-hubs along River Ganga to come up this year

In a recent development, 75 destinations along the banks of Ganga river will be developed this year as hubs of sustainable economic development and tourism. This will be done by promoting site-specific activities, such as river walks, homestays, biodiversity watch, village tours, jungle safaris and many more such activities.

Reports have it that around 26 such sites have already become operations in six states along rivers Gomati, Ganga, Chambal, Yamuna, and Hoogly, which is as part of the Centre’s larger goal to promote livelihood activities under the Arth Ganga concept of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG).
Referring to this, NMCG Director General, G Asok Kumar said that this initiative is as part of the Arth Ganga concept started by PM Narendra Modi at the National Ganga Council meeting in 2019 in Kanpur. This project will make river-people connect via economic bridges to ensure sustainability of the efforts of NMCG in rejuvenating the Ganga and its tributaries, and Jalaj is part of one of its six identified verticals - livelihood generation. Reportedly, Jalaj is based on the 'circular economy' model through which local people are mobilised to contribute to the biodiversity conservation and clean river ecosystem and trained in sustainable livelihood practices.

Union Jal Shakti (water resources) Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat launched the initiative virtually on August 16 at 26 sites in Uttarakhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh. While 11 such sites are in Uttar Pradesh, six sites are in West Bengal, five in Bihar, two in Uttarakhand, and one each in Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.
For this initiative, specific activities have been identified for each site, and availability of natural resources and local conditions have been considered for the same.