Study Tours
Saryu Roy has undertaken various study cum awareness tours inside and outside the country for various purposes. In December 2002 he got an opportunity to tour the coalfields of Coal India Limited as a member of two expert committees nominated by the Ministry of Coal and Mines, Govt. of India. He was nominated a member of "The task force to consider modalities of involving Gram Sabhas/Gram Panchyaats in Mining Process" and also member of the Monitoring Committee on Community Development/Peripheral Development and Rehabilitation Works in Coal Mining areas of the CIL. He toured the South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) in Madhya Pradesh and Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) as well as Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) in Jharkhand where he was confronted with the acute pollution of River Damodar. A group of eminent scientists and environmental experts also accompanied the yatras and made scientific study of the problem of pollution at various sites alongside the rivers.
He travelled alongside the major rivers like Damodar, Subernarekha and Sone from its origin point to confluence. The objective behind such yatras was to study the water quality and impact of economic activities on its waters and to spread awareness regarding conservation and preservation of this precious natural resource and its augmentation.
He also toured the nook and corners of the famous Saranda forest in Jharkhand to assess impact of iron ore mining on Biodiversity and Wildlife as well as on the waters of Karo & Koyana Rivers. He moved around extensively the coal mining areas of CCL, BCCL, ECL in Jharkhand, WCL around Singarauli in Uttar Pradesh & Madhya Pradesh and SECL in Chhattisgarh to assess the problems of pollution, soil degradation and health hazards due to unscrupulous mining.
He also visited Amritsar in 1983 and stayed inside Swarna Mandir for a week in pre operation Blue Star period along with a delegation. Sant Jarnail Singh, Bhinderwala was camping inside the temple premises at that time. He had occasion to meet Bhinderawala and discuss contemporary political situation and to have the first hand account of the tension brewing there which was reflection of the then mindset of Punjab people.
He visited the upper Ganga valley from Haridwar-Rishikesh to Gangotri-Yamunotri with a team consisting of eminent environmentalists Dr. G D Agrawal and M.C. Mehta in 2007 and acquired extensive knowledge of Himalayan ecology and threat to its environment due to high dams and existing as well as proposed Hydel Power Schemes in the fragile upper Ganga Valley. Before it in 2005 he was at Kedarnath ji and Badrinath ji. He has occasion to tour extensively throughout the country from Amarnath ji and other places of importance in Jammu-Kashmir to Kanyakumari and North east to Dwarka-Somnath ji.
He has also visited more than half a dozen countries abroad to study the agricultural practices and allied developments. From June 13 to June 27, 2001 he went to Tokyo, Mexico, many parts of USA, London, Netherland (Amsterdam), Paris, Switzerland, as a member of the four persons delegation of India Council of Agricultural research( ICAR), Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India. when Indo-Nepal treaty was not renewed in 1987 by the Govt. of India and was allowed to expire unilaterally during the Prime Minister ship of Late Rajiv Gandhi leading to unwarranted tension with the brotherly neighbouring country he lead a goodwill mission to Nepal to study the reasons behind and to ensure that traditional cultural relations be not jeopardized owing to political misunderstanding between India and Nepal.
He also availed a chance to visit Bangkok (Thailand) in 2008 to attend a series of socio-cultural functions get acquainted with obvious impact of ancient Indian heritage in the society and the Government. Recently he was on a week long visit to Mauritius from February 27 to March 5, 2011 on the occasion of Maha Shivratri which is the National Festival there. He was invited in the Maha Shivratri festival as the guest by the organisers.