HOLY GANGA TURNING DEADLY GANGA
By Anju Mathew
Ma Ganga or Mother Ganges, described by Harvard religious scholar Diana Eck as “the archetype of sacred waters”, is worshipped as a goddess by Hindus worldwide. Holy Ganges-The largest river in India serving more than 500 million people across eleven states is the sixth most polluted river in the world. Perhaps the water in the Holy Ganges is not that holi as one would think and is highly polluted by untreated urban sewage, industrial wastes and religious offerings wrapped in non degradable items like plastic. The condition of the river worsened because of the cremation on it’s bank. The river and its banks are not just filthy but toxic, disease-bearing and carcinogenic.
According to the World Bank, eighty percent of the deaths in India are caused due to waterborne diseases and an estimate on Health costs due to Water Pollution in India shows it is equal to three percent of the GDP. Datas show that every year under five Indian children die from diarrhoea, many of them in the Ganges basin. The Central Pollution report shows that the water is unfit for drinking and bathing. Many spots of Ganges have been identified as ecologically dead zones. Many great cities and historically important places share credit in the baptism of Holy Ganga to a deadly Ganga. The great towns, tributeries and Ghats of historical-religious importance like Kanpur, Ram Ganga, Gaumukh, have their own stories into the changing face of Holy Ganga to a Deadly Ganges.
Gaumukh is one of the most sacred places in Hinduism , the source of the River Ganges. It was repeatedly reported in many news papers that the erring hotels in Dharamshala,ashrams released their domestic wastes and sewage into the tribunals of Ganga. Moreover Gangotri glaciers and Gaumukh is also impacted by debris due to landslides in the nearby areas.
Ram Ganga a major tributory of Ganga river. Many studies conducted reveals the river water of Ram Ganga is higly polluted. Large contribution of pollution are industries and agricultural wates. There is no sewage treatment and there are scores of paper mills, sugar plants, brass foundries and plastics factories nearby that spew waste into the Ram Ganga and its tributaries. The exposed riverbed presents an apocalyptic scene of filth and garbage, of dead dogs, plastic bags, nullahs (drains) spewing pink dye and pigs rooting through the muck.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed to pay environmental compensation for causing pollution of the river including plastic ban and prohibited throwing of any municipal waste, construction and demolition wastes into Ganga and its tributaries at the rate of Rs 5,000 per day. The green panel divided the cleaning work of Ganga into different segments i;e Gomukh to Haridwar, Haridwar to Kanpur, Kanpur to border of Uttar Pradesh, border of Uttar Pradesh to border of Jharkhand and border of Jharkhand to Bay of Bengal. Hundreds and millions of dollars have been pumped into different projects under the name of cleaning up River Ganga since the 1980s and failed in its aim.
