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Indus River Green Corridor Initiative in Ladakh
Why in News?
Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena launched the Indus River Green Corridor Eco‑Restoration Plantation project at Spituk Pharka in Leh, Ladakh.
Key Points
- About: The Indus River Green Corridor is a one-of-a-kind cold desert river bank restoration project in India that seeks to build green buffers along the Indus River in the fragile high‑altitude landscape of Ladakh’s Leh region.
- Nearly 1000 saplings of indigenous species like Oleaster, Sea buckthorn were planted on the riverbank through collaborative efforts of civil administration, military, police, and local communities.
- 1000 saplings of Cherry Blossom and Apricot were also planted along the roadside in Leh city, aimed at enhancing the green aesthetics of the city.
- Objectives:
- To restore the ecological integrity of the Indus riverbanks and enhance biodiversity in Ladakh’s cold desert ecosystem.
- To address pressing ecological challenges like soil erosion, desertification, and low green cover.
- To develop Ladakh as a sustainable and resilient environment while improving the region’s aesthetic appeal.
- Irrigation Techniques: Adopting gravity-based solar submersible strip irrigation and drip irrigation systems, to optimise water usage in plantation and afforestation activities.
- Ecological Benefits: Strategic plantation efforts will help reduce wind speed through shelter belts, prevent soil erosion along riverbanks, improve micro‑climatic stability, enhance oxygen levels, and support biodiversity conservation in a challenging environment.
- Significance: Ladakh’s current forest cover stands at less than 1%. The Lieutenant Governor set an ambitious target to raise forest cover to 5% in the coming two years.
- It will help attain the national goal of restoring 2.6 crore hectares of degraded land by 2030.
- Indus River:
- Indus (In Tibetan called Sengge Chu/‘Lion River’) is a major river in South Asia, originating in Tibet near Mansarovar Lake in the Trans-Himalaya.
- The river flows through Tibet, India and Pakistan and about 200 million people live in the area of its drainage basin.
- The Indus Waters Treaty was signed in 1960 between India and Pakistan, with the support of the World Bank
| Read More: Indus Waters Treaty |
