UP: 1,000 ponds identified; plantation drives mark water restoration

GREATER NOIDA (UP): Following various measures under Jal Shakti Abhiyan, the Gautam Budh Nagar administration is carrying out a survey of ponds and water bodies in the district. It has collated 1,000 such ponds and water bodies, which are to be restored and maintained collectively through area jurisdiction (of revenue department, concerned authorities as well as social training audits of village resources under gram panchayat MGNREGA scheme - Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act etc.).

Also while some ponds and water bodies will be adopted through industries and CSR drives, the collated ponds include those in Dadri, Sadar and Jewar areas of the district.
Even as 20 new ponds will be dug up by HCL Tech under CSR drive (10 in Dadri, and five each in Jewar and Sadar tehsil), a plantation drive was undertaken on Sunday where 50,000 plants were planted in Dedha area of Sadar tehsil through a MoU via CSR activity with Rotary Club and Delhi Ashok.

“Jal Shakti Abhiyan is one of the most important campaigns, which has been launched in the country including this district. There are several components to this abhiyan/scheme. Apart from restoration of groundwater and local water bodies, an important aspect of the scheme is plantation whereby about 50,000 saplings were planted on Monday by Rotary Club and Delhi Ashok under CSR measures in Sadar tehsil of the district. They have also taken the responsibility of rearing and maintaining the plants for the next 10 years,” said Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrateBN Singh .
Apart from this, the DM has organised free consultation in Japanese style Miyawaki method at afforestation. “While there are several models at afforestation, one experiment, based on Miyawaki method has been done by a company called Dr Willmar Schwabe India based in Noida sector 60. Two days back they made a presentation before a group of companies in my office. They have promised me that they will provide free consultation to anybody who is interested in taking up this at their place within the district,” said Singh who has also shared Dr Schwabe’s assistant Sudhanshu Mishra’s cell number -9873171525 for those interested.
Akira Miyawaki, a Japanese botanist and expert in plant ecology, devised the Miyawaki method of tree plantation where saplings grow 10 times faster leading to development of forest on a patch of land 30 times more dense.
While a seminar was organised on the occasion, others present include district forest officer (DFO) PK Shrivastava, deputy district collector Sadar Prasun Dwivedi, deputy district magistrate Jewar Gunja Singh, additional magistrate Abhay Kumar Singh, district basic education officer Balamukund Prasad, Tehsildar and more.