Waterman Rajendra Singh, Justice Gowda in Jamshedpur for National River & Mountain Summit

Jamshedpur: Top legal minds, conservationists, and policymakers of the nation arrive in the Steel City for a two-day National Conference on Rivers and Mountains set to start on Friday. Headlined by retired Supreme Court Judge Justice V. Gopala Gowda and India’s iconic ‘Waterman’ Rajendra Singh, the high-profile summit at Sakchi’s Motilal Nehru Public School will hammer out a much-needed legal framework to protect the country’s drying rivers and ecologically fragile highlands.

The conference will bring together Jamshedpur West MLA Saryu Roy, renowned environmentalist Dinesh Mishra, Dr. Gopal Sharma, B. Satyanarayana, Bibhuti Debbarma, Arun Kumar Shukla, Yugantar Bharati President Anshul Sharan, Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Siddharth Tripathi, and Amity University Vice-Chancellor Professor Piyush Kant Pandey, alongside numerous river and mountain conservation experts.

Conference patron Saryu Roy outlined the detailed schedule, noting that the inaugural session will run from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM. The first technical session will take place from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM. During this segment, nine specialized speakers will deliberate on the urgent need for mountain and water conservation, as well as a dedicated preservation act.

Roy informed that a second technical session, scheduled from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM, will feature a structured group discussion focused on drafting a legal framework for mountain conservation. Twelve experts will participate in this panel to debate the inclusions and exclusions of the proposed draft law.

The third technical session will run from 5:45 PM to 7:45 PM, featuring presentations and a deep-dive discussion among ten panellists. Attendees will also witness the official release of a commemorative souvenir during the event.

A coalition is jointly hosting this two-day national event, comprising Yugantar Bharati, the Swarnarekha Region Development Trust, Tarun Bharat Sangh, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, Jal Biradari, Nature Foundation, and Mission Green.