Clean Ganga Mission Gets Stalin Thumbs up at Niti Aayog Meet

Tamil Nadu CM Demands Plan to Clean Cauvery River on Line of Namami Gange

By MANISH ANAND

NEW DELHI, May 24, 2025 – Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin raised the demand for a ‘Clean Ganga Mission’ like plan for Cauvery River in the 10^th Governing Council Meeting of Niti Aayog. Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the annual meeting of the think tank at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on Saturday.

The Prime Minister urged upon the states to become partners in achieving the aim of a developed nation by 2047. He exhorted the states to deepen the participation of the smaller cities in the development of the nation.

Speaking on the occasion, Stalin called upon the Centre to replicate the ‘Clean Ganga Mission’ for Cauvery River also. The cleaning of Ganga River came in attention after Uttar Pradesh successfully hosted the Mahakumbh, which saw record participation of the people from all across the world.

Under the ‘Namami Gange’ programme, the National Mission for Clean Ganga had earlier stated that river stretches in Kanpur, Prayagraj, and other parts of Uttar Pradesh have seen significant turnaround in the water quality. The claims were further substantiated by survey findings of record number of sighting of dolphins in the Ganga River stretches in UP after decades.

Recently, the mission announced sighting of the endangered Red-Crowned Roofed Turtle in the waters of the Ganga, a species that had previously seen a continuous decline in its population. “Supported from Namami Gange, TSAFI project team conducted detailed assessment of turtle diversity and abundance of Haiderpur Wetland Complex (HWC) in 2020 followed by Habitat Evaluation study on newly formed turtle sanctuary near Prayagraj along Ganges in Uttar Pradesh in 2022,” said the Namami Gange Mission in a media statement .

Study along HWC suggested the presence of nine turtle species whereas indirect evidence of five turtle species was gathered in Prayagraj. One of the most astounding findings of above and prior studies was that none of the viable population or individuals of Red-crowned Roofed turtle (RRT) Batagur kachuga were sighted or reported from the entire Ganga,” added the Namami Gange Mission in a media statement.

The findings suggested that this was the most endangered species of entire North India, particularly Uttar Pradesh. “In the last 30 years there was no confirmed report of any (sighting of Roofed turtle) adult from the main channel of Ganga,” added the Namami Gange Mission.

Cauvery River pollution is fast gaining attention of both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu government. Panels have been commissioned for studies. Concerns have been raised over rising contamination levels from industrial effluents, including the pharmaceutical industries, in the Cauvery River.  

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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