Existence of Ganga in danger, claims Environment Scientist

"Almost Rs. 1500 crore were spent on GAP 1 and projects amounting to Rs. 20,000 crore are still running. Government must fix accountability and there should be monitoring after every three months. Monitoring committee should consist of technical experts," he said.

Suggesting long term measures to address these problems, he said that there should be a complete ban on construction of big dams at the source of its streams and usage of alternative power generating methods is must.

"Eight streams of Ganga originate from Gangotri glacier but the main ones are Bhagirathi, Mandakini and Alaknanda. All the proposed dams near the source should be cancelled. They can construct small dams," he said.

According to Tripathi, the whole Uttarakhand region is low pressure zone where the wind velocity is very high so electricity can be generated through windmills like Europe.

"As far as the reduction of ground water level is concerned, rainwater harvesting should be implemented strictly," he suggested.