The River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) Authorities Order, 2016 is a statutory order issued by the Central Government under Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. It was notified on October 7, 2016, by the Ministry of Jal Shakti. The Order was created to address the serious threat to the Ganga from increasing sewage, industrial effluents, and growing water demand, aiming for effective pollution abatement and the restoration of the river's ecological integrity.
The Order's core mechanism is the creation of a multi-tiered institutional framework and the granting of statutory powers. It established the National Ganga Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, as the apex authority, replacing the earlier National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA). Crucially, it declared the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) as a statutory authority, empowering it to issue binding directions under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Order 8 specifically grants the NMCG the power to issue directions for pollution abatement and rejuvenation. The framework also includes State Ganga Committees and District Ganga Protection Committees for decentralized governance. A key provision is Order 5, which mandates maintaining minimum continuous ecological flows (Aviral Dhara) to facilitate the river's self-rejuvenation.
The Order has been subject to recent amendments. The River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) Authorities (Second Amendment) Order, 2026, notified on August 10, 2026, amended the provisions regarding floodplains. It removed the blanket "construction free zone" wording and instead introduced a specific definition for the "active floodplain" (area corresponding to a one-in-five-year flood) and created regulatory and warning zones.