Jharkhand's Dhanbad turned a barren coal-belt hillock green; CISF is now trying the same experiment on 6 acres along Delhi’s Yamuna

Delhi’s Yamuna is all set for a much-awaited green makeover. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has started replicating a forest-reclamation experiment that was successfully carried out in the coal-mining belt of Dhanbad, Jharkhand. As per a recent report on the initiative, about 100 CISF personnel planted 1,000 fruit-bearing and medicinal trees and one lakh slips of vetiver grass at Ganga Vihar near Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi. This is a Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the initiative fits into a much larger government effort to restore the Yamuna floodplain through vegetation, wetlands and soil-moisture conservation.A much-needed green experimentYamuna Delhi (Canva)The brilliant idea originated in Dhanbad, which is among India’s best-known coal-mining regions. It is a fact that mining can leave behind severely disturbed landscapes, including barren overburden areas and degraded soil. The CISF personnel here deployed with Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) reportedly helped reclaim a barren hillock to transform it into a forested land. That experience has now inspired the force to try a similar ecological intervention in Delhi.The similar concept has inspired them to st...