Art of Living Foundation: Restoring Life to Rivers

The Art of Living foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by humanitarian and spiritual master Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Bangalore, India, started working on river rejuvenation projects in 2013. After determining that rivers were drying up due to mismanagement and unregulated water exploitation, the organization launched river rejuvenation projects to revive rivers and areas affected by drought by implementing a comprehensive water conservation approach. The initiative was headed by Dr. Lingaraju Yale, whose expertise in geohydrology helped him focus on rejuvenating geohydrological processes in a river basin. Over the previous 11 years, Art of Living had successfully implemented several river rejuvenation projects in the southern Indian states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. The organization was now eager to address water conservation problems throughout northern Indian states, but would have to make some strategic decisions to define its future courses of action.