​About the project

The Ghongha Village Council River Sanctuary emerged from a simple but urgent concern voiced by local communities: the steady decline of a once-perennial river. Villagers reported falling water levels, shrinking fish populations, reduced vegetable yields, and increasing seasonal dryness. These changes directly threatened household nutrition, livelihoods, and long-term water security.

In early 2024, The Nature People Network began a series of consultations—starting deliberately with women from local Self Help Groups—across Belgahana village. These conversations revealed not only ecological stress, but also a strong willingness among villagers to protect the river if a locally legitimate pathway existed.
Rather than pursuing an external protected-area designation, NPN worked with Gram Panchayats to activate existing constitutional powers under the Panchayati Raj system. Through Gram Sabha resolutions, villages formally declared stretches of the Ghongha River as Village Council Water–Biodiversity–Agriculture Conservation Sanctuaries, accompanied by a locally drafted river constitution.

Between January and December 2024, three consecutive villages—Belgahana, Bhakurra Nawapara, and Bardwar—passed sanctuary resolutions, creating a continuous 7-kilometre community-governed river corridor. This initiative is among the first known examples in India of a river being conserved through formal village-level governance rather than top-down notification.