The Defence Minister Arun Jaitley released a Book titled ‘Ganga Avahan – The Epic Tale of a Historic Swim’.
The ‘Ganga Avahan’ was a pioneering and historic exploratory open-water swim expedition on the Ganga River.
This was the first ever human effort to swim down the entire stretch of the river and also the longest ever social campaign undertaken through an adventure sporting activity for the Swachh Bharat National Mission, Clean Ganga project and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative.
A nine-member team of three swimmers led Wg Cdr Paramvir Singh undertook this expedition.
Wg Cdr Paramvir began the expedition which continued for 43 days, through Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal and culminating on 19 November 2015 at Bakkhali Beach, Frazerganj covering a total distance of 2,800 kms.
Throughout the swim, the team campaigned extensively for Swachh Bharat, Clean Ganga and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, reaching out to the villagers, townsfolk, civic authorities and NGOs, managing to interact with tens of lakhs of people all along the route as they undertook their extraordinary and highly challenging odyssey.
This Book chronicles their entire extraordinary and indeed fascinating journey, detailing experiences, outreach and challenges along the vast civilizational cradle that is the Ganga. The Foreword of this epic expedition is written by the Prime Minister.