Impact of Agriculture on Ganga River - Dnyandeep to apply for Research Project

 I am very happy to receive a proposal from Dr. N. S. Raman, Director of Dnyandeep Infotech, Nagpur Branch seeking my advice, whether we should apply for the Research Project

Cleaning the Ganga and Agri-Water Cooperation India

 – The Netherlands Funded Project

The funding of which is from The Dutch Research Council (NWO), through the Merian Fund and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) aim to further stimulate long term research collaboration between their two countries by funding joint research, to strengthen the international position and global impact of their research. Funding is provided for interdisciplinary and trans disciplinary consortia of Indian and Dutch research groups and stakeholder partners, for high quality research that has the potential for societal and scientific impact

The total budget for this call is M € 1.4 on the Dutch, and Rs. 11 crores on the Indian side. With the available total budget, NWO and DST aim to fund up to two projects with a duration of five years each.Projects can apply for a maximum of €700.000 at NWO and a maximum of Rs. 5.5 crores from DST.

The NWO Grant Rules 2017 are applicable to the part of the project’s budget covered by NWO. The part of the budget covered by DST must follow the DST grant conditions.
The Merian Fund is a NWO-fund for international cooperation with (emerging) science countries and developing countries. The common thread within the Merian Fund is international research to promote the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals worldwide.

At first, I rejected the idea as Dnyandeep Infotech has just started Environmental  Consultancy and has not geared up with necessary infrastructure. Moreover the timelimit for submission of proposal was also very short ie upto 26th Nov. But after pondering over the idea for two days, I thought it will be a good start for Dnyandeep to at least  have exposure to DST and opportunity to highlight similar research project completed in Sangli area under leadership of Dr. B. Subba Rao.

EPRF, Sangli and Willingdon College Sangli had done similar research project  of Environmental Impact of Irrigation schemes of Sugar factories on the Krishna river basin from Karad to Sangli. Late Dr. B. A. Patil, Principal of Willingdon College, Dr. J. B. Chougule and Dr. B. Subba Rao were the coordinators. We collected and monitored water and wastewater and agricultural soil samples, studied both environmental impact on river and soil as well as positive effect in infrastructural development, education, health and standard of living in rural area due to irrigation projects.

Krishna river basin from Karad to Sangli. 

I have  requested   Dr. B. Subba Rao to help Dnyandeep Infotech in this project as he has extensive experience in this field and well maintained NABET approved environmental laboratory.

Moreover, my Ph.D. guide Dr. G. D. Agrawal sacrificed his life for Save Ganga and we had participated in his struggle with moral support and public awareness campaign. Recently I had attended the zoom meeting in his memory and had met many of his coworkers in his struggle and fast unto death crusade. Notable among them were Dr. Paritosh Tyagi, Dr. S. K. Gupta, Shri. Rajendrasingh of Tarun Bharat Sangh and Dr. Vinod Tare, of Ganga River Research Group, IIT, Kanpur. I wrote many blogs on his life and dedication towards protecting Ganga river from damage to flow due to upstream dams.

I was constantly in touch with him since he started his first fast in 2008 till 2013. However, I could not continue the interaction due to my family problems.

I have studied his  extensive research on Ganga River pollution through his students in IIT Kanpur and was convinced about the need of protecting Ganga water quality. 

The present research project involves comprehensive and holistic monitoring and mapping of the water resources across Hindon. An adequate level of understanding of the water resources within the river basin system and the impact of agriculture on this system is needed in order to suggest interventions to improve (agricultural) water management. This requires monitoring of the water resources and pollutants within the river basin through data collection, modelling and interpretation. Insights into the surface and groundwater hydrology of the basin are important, existing knowledge should be used as much as possible.  How does the river water level fluctuate throughout the year? How does that link to the groundwater system? What influence does extraction of groundwater have? What are the expected effects of climate change?  Similarly, an inventory of pollution sources in the basin is necessary to determine their relative contributions.

Dr. N. S. Raman, being an international authority on Environmental Impact assessment and having conducted many such studies in his service as Dy. Director of NEERI, Nagpur will definitely be able to pool together necessary resources and complete the project.

For me, it will be a satisfaction of doing something concrete in furthering the cause of Dr. Agrawal's struggle and sacrifice.  I hope we shall succeed in this venture.

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