Environment activists join hands to save the Hindon

MEERUT: Environment activists from seven districts of Saharanpur and Meerut divisions joined hands on Sunday to save river Hindon, a tributary of the Yamuna. They have outlined a roadmap for the purpose, including creating awareness among villagers residing along the banks and taking legal actions against industries polluting the river.

Various non-government organisations (NGOs) working for environmental causes in Meerut, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Baghpat, Ghaziabad and Gautambudh Nagar convened under the leadership of Krishan Veer Chaudhary of the Bhartiya Krishk Samaj to brainstorm on how to make the Hindon pollution-free.

Naveen Pradhan of Research and Relief Society moved a proposal to appoint Chaudhary the convener of the movement, which was accepted unopposed. Vikrant Tongad of Safe Green says that Hindon merges into the Yamuna at Gautam Budh Nagar, where it is highly polluted.


Director of NEER Foundation, Raman Tyagi, said that to draw more and more people to the movement, it had taken the help of social networking site Facebook. He said work was on to develop a website dedicated to river Hindon. A quarterly newsletter is also being published for the cause, he added.

It was decided on Sunday that a workshop will be held in September in Ghaziabad where Uma Bharti, union minister of water resources and river development and Ganga rejuvenation, and union minister Sanjeev Balian, who is an MP from Muzaffarnagar, would be invited to share the ground reality of the dying river. In October, a Hindon Bachao Yatra will be launched from Saharanpur to Gautam Budh Nagar.