IITs to propose Ganga basin management plan

A consortium of the seven Indian Institutes of Technology or IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Guwahati and Roorkee) will propose a Ganga river basin management plan to the ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF). The proposal was mooted at the first joint Environmental Energy and Climate Change Education and Research meet at IIT Bombay on Saturday.

It was proposed by the minister for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh. While inviting the IITs to submit a proposal, Ramesh emphasised that the IITs should take up the challenge of the Ganga basin clean-up.

The 16-crore project will be developed over a period of one year and will subsequently produce an action plan for cleaning the Ganga including sewage treatment.

If the plan developed by the IITs is approved, it will be an example of best practices wherein the project could get implemented by a consortium of IITs nominated by the ministry.  “The responsibility of cleaning (the Ganga) is not only in the hands of the government but also the common man. The emphasis should be on projects like development of sewage treatment plants for all the major water bodies like Ganga and Yamuna across the country. Ganga has a very important place in our culture,” said Ramesh.

The minister also proposed an Indian Council for Environmental Research on the lines of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences. While deputation from the IITs is on the anvil at the National Environmental Protection Agency, environmental sciences and engineering will now also be included as one of the qualifications for entry into the Indian Forest Service (IFS).

“The research meet was an attempt to engage the IITs to create an action plan for the next 15 years in the areas of environment, energy and climate change so that we can serve the needs of country,” said Virendra Sethi, Head of the Centre for environmental Sciences and Engineering at IIT Bombay.

Based on some thrust areas outlined by Ramesh including water, solar energy and cleaner coal, the IIT consortium will also work on research proposals. It can also include other areas. The basic framework for the proposals to be submitted to MoEF for grant of seed money will be coordinated by IIT Bombay.

Another proposal includes annual doctoral research scholars’ congress in the areas of environment and climate change and an Indian Environmental Science Congress at the IITs. The first Phd congress is scheduled to be held at IIT Kharagpur by the end of 2010. “The first draft of the proposals discussed at the research meet will be prepared by first week of April, while the next meeting of the IITs for further deliberation on the proposals will be held by May-June,” said Sethi.