WHAT INITIATIVES DID GOVERNMENT TAKE TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT?

With the rising temperature and increasing dirt in our surroundings, India went from 141 to 177 on the Global Environment Performance Index in 2018, the government has come up with many initiatives to make our society clean and hygienic. 

Every year June 5th is celebrated as World Environment Day and the Government in power has launched many initiatives to preserve our environment. Here are 7 initiatives taken by the government to save the environment:

1. Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan:

Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan is the most followed initiative that was taken by the government. It was launched on 2nd October 2014 i.e., birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. This Abhiyaan was started to make India clean. Many slogans were also used during the Abhiyaan. One of them is “Clean India, Green India”. 

This Abhiyaan was divided into 2 categories:

a. Rural 

b. Urban 

The Rural category was supervised by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, whereas, Urban category was supervised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

2. Namami Gange Programme:

This programme was launched by our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Damodar Das Modi in June after he was elected as the PM. It was launched to make the river Ganga clean. The government approached this initiative in a different way. The government not only cleaned the river but also helped the commoners living besides it’s ghats to achieve a very sustainable life.

A budget of 20,000 crore rupees was assigned for this programme. Achievements gained from this programme are removal of solid wastes from the river, sewage treatment, monitoring of industrial waste etc.

3. Green Skill Development Programme:

This programme was launched on May 15, 2018 by the government to provide skills and training to the workers in the Forest and Environment sector. This programme’s initiative to provide skills among the youth is running all over India. This programme helped achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’S), Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC’s) and National Biodiversity Targets (NBT’s) .

4. Toilets before Temples:

This campaign was run when our honorable Prime Minister was then running for the PM elections. During one of his speeches he said, “ I want to build toilets before temples”. This speech went viral and slogans like “Pehle Shauchalaya, phir Devalaya” became popular. 

Now over 9 crore washrooms are built all over the country.

5. Nagar Van Scheme:

This scheme focuses on growth of Forests. It was launched on the occasion of World Environment Day in 2020. The scheme will start on existing land of forests or the land which is not occupied by humans. The aim is to grow more than 200 forests by another 5 years. 

6. Atal Bhujal Yojna:

This Yojna was started to improve the quality of groundwater. It was launched on 25th December 2019 on the 95th birth anniversary of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was launched in around 7 Indian states, i.e., Mumbai, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to improve the groundwater within 5 years. 

7. National Clean Air Programme:

Launched by the Government of India in 2017 was aimed to achieve less polluted air by 20%-30% in another 5 years. To achieve clean and less polluted air some people have contributed by using CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) gas in their vehicles. Some have also switched to electric vehicles.