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January 26, 2020

The Indian Army has always been at the helm of affairs when it has come to help with the national development and conservation in general. Be it guarding the borders, fighting against the external or internal threats, helping with disaster management and relief, endeavouring education for the masses, ecological conservation or simple security, the Armymen have always been there.

The Indian Army has recently been supporting the Indian Government with multiple sustainable development and ecological conservation initiatives. While we can, in no words express our gratitude towards the Army for all the things that they have done for the country and the fellow countrymen, through this blog, we would want to send a thankyou note to them.

While we have been doing a 6 part story series to introduce the world to the efforts of the army towards ecological conservation and building economic support for the country, this blog is dedicated to listing out all those in one place. So, please read on:

Territorial Army under the flagship of Indian Army has 10 Ecological Battalions (TA) with 25 companies carrying out afforestation in difficult and degraded areas in Dehradun (Chamoli Garhwal) & Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, Samba in Jammu & Kashmir, Kufri in Himachal, Bhati Mines in New Delhi, Tezpur & Kokrajhar in Assam, Aurangabad in Maharashtra and Allahabad, Kanpur & Varanasi in Uttarpradesh. 

  • The Composite ETF Battalion raised in Apr 2019 commonly known as the ‘Ganga Task Force’ raised under the aegis of Ministry of Jal Shakti in Uttar Pradesh is deployed and dedicated to providing assistance to Govt’s Clean Ganga Mission under ‘Namami Gange Project’. These Battalions have till date planted approximately 7.99 crore saplings in an area of 80,222 Hectares with 75 to 80 per cent survival rate. 
  • The 25 companies from the current year onwards have been planting two lakh saplings, two lakh seed balls and one lakh Vetiver Grass slips to achieve various goals under ecology restoration which includes soil erosion control, rainfall-runoff check, groundwater recharging, sand dune stabilization, riverbank stabilization, wetland rejuvenation by means of Phyto-remediation process, creating viable carbon sink etc. These Units by virtue of their access to remote and far-flung areas including border areas have been involved in various concepts like social forestry, food forest concepts to promote socio-economic development. 
  • Recently, two Uttarakhand based Units have planted one Lakh Walnut Saplings in two border area villages of the State free of cost for the people to provide means of sustainable livelihood and prevent migration from these areas. The COAS himself inaugurated the plantation drive in one of the two villages in Oct this year. 
  • In addition to this, the Army has also raised Ecological Task Force for reclamation and conservation of the river Yamuna and also for the development of a sink which can absorb about 3 bn tonnes of carbon emission as a step towards fulfilling the goals set during the Paris Convention.

Considering the past and present performance of these Ecological Battalions (TA) and Govt’s initiative towards ‘Green India Mission’, it is proposed to raise at least one such Battalion for each and every State and UT of the country to take on the challenge of increasing forest cover and check ecological degradation in India in collaboration with the departments involved in the process.

It is important to note here that all of these steps are being taken in a manner that not just the ecological conservation goals get achieved but also employment and hence economic value gets generated for the citizens.

(India of today faces multiple challenges to its democratic setup. A lot of protests have been happening at both ends. Fake news has been spreading as well and blinded by our trust in some of the anti-social elements, we have even started questioning our defence forces. At BuzzOnEarth, we feel that trusting the people who face hardships on a daily basis and are ready to lay down their lives for us is the least we could do!)