One in every three rivulets disappeared in India, says KN Govindacharaya

Hyderabad: Former BJP general secretary K.N. Govindacharya, party idealogue during the Vajpayee-Advani era, noted with concern that nearly one-third of 15,000 rivers and rivulets had disappeared from the map. Forest cover had shrunk from 33 per cent to less than 15 per cent.
Addressing a press conference while launching the poster of the Bharatiya Sanskriti Utsav in Hyderabad, Govindacharya said that if remedial measures to check the degrading environmental loss are not taken up before 2030, any efforts to reverse the trend will not work.
Looking at the multifaceted concerns from different areas, Govindacharya said that the Bharat Vikas Sangam, has been organising a nine-day long Bharatiya Sanskriti Utsav at Kalaburagi in Sedam district of Karnataka, which will be bringing over delegates from over 300 NGOs from the country and abroad to a single platform and deliberate on all issues.
The exhibition will be conducted at a 250-acre venue. Over 150 speeches by well-known leaders in different spheres including 50 Padma awardees, sports person Sachin Tendulkar, Sudha Murthy and Ramdev Baba etc will take part in the meeting.
The Bharat Vikas Sangam had conducted six such meetings so far with a gap of every three years.
Vandemataram Foundation president Madhava Reddy said Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah would inaugurate the conference on January 29 and former president Ram Nath Kovind will take part in `Desha-Dharma-Samskruti Sammelan’ on February 6.
Ekalavya Foundation chief Venugopal Reddy, Council for Green Revolution founder Laxma Reddy and Bharatiya Sanskriti Utsav working chairman Leela Laxma Reddy and others took part in the meeting.