The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has gifted the tourists a perfect weekend getaway. If you are planning to go camping and river rafting in Rishikesh this weekend, the good news is that the ban on river rafting has been lifted.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has given a go ahead to the beach camping in 25 sites along the River Ganga in Rishikesh. However, camping is still restricted outside 100 meters radius from the middle of the river.
NGT in December 2015 had banned camping activities between Kaudiyala and Rishikesh along the 36 km stretch. This order was drawn by an NGO – Social Action for Forest and Environment (SAFE) against the government’s verdict to issue licenses to the number of camping sites without seeing the water carrying capacity.
Moreover, the ban was also made in order to curtail down the water pollution and to control the use of plastics along the entire river belt.
The Wildlife institute of India and the Uttarakhand Government had recommended its presentations stating that 33 beach sites were considered suitable for camping. However, NGT found that 22 beaches out of these 33 were partially suitable for camping. However, three were perfectly suitable. Though the left out eight beaches fall under the 100-meter radius and the permission for lifting the ban on them was turned down.
The rafting permission is granted by the tourism department while the sites for camping is given on lease by the forest and revenue departments. Close to 136 rafting operators and 157 camping sites were registered with the government agencies.
With the ban now lifted up, tourists and especially people interested in recreational and rafting activities can now plan a weekend getaway to Rishikesh.
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