~ Over 10 tonnes of waste collected from River Ganges in three days ~
~ Record 7,000 students join hands with ‘Mission Gange’ in Kanpur ~

Team ‘Mission Gange’ have been greeted with immense support and encouragement as over 7,000 students lent their hands to the 40-member team in Kanpur. Mission Gange, is a joint initiative of Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) and National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) to raise awareness about waste management and Ganga cleanliness through a month-long rafting expedition.

Since the start of the expedition on October 5 from Haridwar, Kanpur has witnessed by far the largest number of local participants offering support to the national mission. Over 7,000 students from various schools and Inter colleges and around 1000 locals extended support to this noble cause by helping the team led by Ms. Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to scale Mount Everest and Chief of TSAF.

The expedition began on October 5, 2018 from Haridwar and will cover around 1,500 km via rafting. The journey, encompassing eight major towns including Bijnor, Farrukhabad, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, and Buxar, will conclude in Patna on October 30, 2018.

Prior to the expedition kickoff, Mission Gange team met and interacted with the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on October 4, 2018 in New Delhi.

The Mission Gange team reached Kanpur on October 15, 2018. During the three-day long halt in Kanpur, the team, with the help of over 8,000 volunteers, managed to collect more than 10 tonnes of waste from Bithoor, Sarsasiya, Parmath and Masacre ghat and the tributaries around Kanpur. A Kavi Sammelan was also organised at the Sarsasiya ghat.

The team visited IIT Kanpur where Prof. Vinod Tare gave a lecture on saving river Ganga and instilling a sense of responsibility amongst every individual.

A road show was conducted along a 10-km stretch in Kanpur and was flagged off by Ms. Bachendri Pal. Mrs. Pramila Pandey, Mayor, Kanpur actively participated in the road show.

The team visited nine schools and colleges where about 7,000 students participated in the sensitization programmes.

The team will now be heading to Allahabad and will be carrying out cleaning and awareness activities for the next three days.

“Before arriving in Kanpur, we were expecting big support, but what we witnessed here exceeded our expectations. A mission, as big and important as Mission Gange, can be achieved only with the support of local populace and more importantly the youth of this country. Our dreams now only get bigger for the next four stops.” said expedition leader Ms. Pal.

TSAF has brought together a diverse and industrious team of 40 individuals (20 women and 20 men) including eight mountaineers, who have summited Mt. Everest, and 26 Tata Steel employees. Besides, professionals from backgrounds as diverse as engineering, environmentalists, science etc. are part of the expedition team that is prepared to meet all the challenges that they may encounter during the expedition.

The team, during its stay in various towns along the course, will carry out cleanliness drives at Ghats and surrounding areas, visit schools and institutions to create awareness on waste management, pollution in Ganga and climate change.

About Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF)
Founded by legendary mountaineer Ms. Bachendri Pal, first Indian woman to climb Mt Everest on May 23, 1984, Tata Steel Adventure Foundation is an outbound leadership institute which through its wide range of activities aims at developing able leaders for the future through identification of their limits of mental and physical endurance. It allows people from all walks of life and all ages to choose their own metaphor for self-discovery. True to its philosophy of experimental learning, TSAF believes that no classroom is better than nature and no teacher is better than your own will.

In addition to the TSAF outbound leadership program, several other courses are conducted by TSAF like horse riding, parasailing, water sports, sports climbing, rock climbing, and many others. Each course is a certification course thereby giving a sense of fulfillment and achievement at the end of it.

About Tata Steel
Tata Steel Group is among the top global steel companies with an annual crude steel capacity of 27.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) as on March 31, 2018. It is one of the world's most geographically-diversified steel producers, with operations in 26 countries and a commercial presence in over 50 countries. The Group recorded a consolidated turnover of US $20.41 billion (INR 133,016 crore) in FY18. Tata Steel Group is spread across five continents with an employee base of over 65,000. Tata Steel retained Industry Leader position in FY18 and ranked second overall in the DJSI assessment, 2017. The Company has been recognised as the Climate Disclosure Leader in ‘Steel category’ by CDP (2017). Besides being a member of the World Steel Climate Action Programme, Tata Steel was felicitated with several awards including the

Prime Minister’s Trophy for the best performing integrated steel plant for 2014-15 and 2015-16, Best Risk Management by CNBC TV18 (2018) and ‘Corporate Strategy Award’ by Mint (2018). The Company also received the ‘Most Ethical Company’ award from Ethisphere Institute for the sixth time (2018), Steel Sustainability Champions (2017) by the World Steel Association, Dun & Bradstreet Corporate Awards (2017 & 2018), Golden Peacock HR Excellence Award by Institute of Directors (2017) as well as 'Asia's Best Integrated Report' award by the Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards (2017), among several others.

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