‘Bhagirathi Ji’ of Uttarakhand, India
Dharam Singh Meena, a Divisional Forest Officer in Uttarakhand, India earned the moniker ‘Bhagirathi Ji’ because of his stellar contribution to rejuvenating the Heval River. Over one lakh people in 23 villages and Chamba town get their drinking and irrigation water from the river.
Most of the Heval River flows through the reserve forest area with a watershed area of 25466.33 hectares. Factors aggravated by anthropogenic activities – mining, release of industrial waste, smelting of ore, incineration of fossil fuel, particularly coal – had forced the river to dry up. In time, Meena launched the ‘Heval River Rejuvenation’ project. The project resulted in substantial additional recharge of water contributing to 865.86 lakh liters of groundwater, an increase in water discharge level in 23 springs, afforestation of 697 hectares with plantation of around 9,88,400 trees and shrubs suited to local climes. All this work generated employment in 34 panchayats.
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