Transcript The river Gangax

The Ganga is mentioned in the Rig-Veda, the
earliest of the Hindu scriptures. The Ganga is mentioned
in the nadistuti (Rig Veda 10.75), which lists the rivers
from east to west. In RV 6.45.31,
the word Ganga is also mentioned,
but it is not clear if the reference is to the river.
RV 3.58.6 says that "your ancient home, your auspicious friendship,
O Heroes, your wealth is on the banks of the Jahnavi (JahnAvyAm)".
This verse could possibly refer to t
he Ganga. In RV 1.116.18-19, the Jahnavi and the
Gangetic dolphin occur in two adjacent verses.
According to the Hindu Purans, Goddess Ganga used
to exist only in Heaven. Then prince Bhagirath worshipped
Ganga to descend on earth.This is why Ganga is
also known as Bhagirathi. In the Mahabharath
this story is also mentioned. In fact, Ganga is a major character in
the Mahabharath, where she is the mother of Bhism.Another
version of the myth tells us that Ganga descended to earth to
purify the souls of the 60,000 sons of an ancient ruler,
King Sagara, who had been burnt to ashes by an enraged ascetic.
In the Uttarakhand Himalayas where glacial water flowing
from a cave at Gaumukh, is the origin of the
Bhagirathi river. Gaumukh has been described as a
desolate place at an altitude of about 4,000 meters (13,000 feet).
Twenty-three kilometers from Gaumukh, the river
reaches Gangotri, the first town on its path.
Thousands of visitors come to Gangotri each year, from
every part of the world. Gangotri is situated at a
height of more than 10,000 feet in Uttarkashi district,
is one of the four shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath and
Yamunotri commonly called Chardham. So
far nearly 3.50 lakh tourists have visited the shrine
this year 2010. The shrine,
dedicated to Goddess Ganga, is closed in October-November
every year as the area remains snow-bound during the winters.
The Kumbh Mela the largest religious gathering on earth, is held every
12 years on the banks of the Triveni Sangam - the
confluence of the holy rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati.
The Mela alternates between Nasik, Allahabad, Ujjain and
Haridwar every three years. The one celebrated at the
Holy Sangam in Allahabad is the largest and holiest of them. The Mela is
attended by millions of devotees, including Sadhus. A holy
dip in the sacred waters is believed to cleanse the soul.
The Ganga has been described by the World Wildlife Fund
as one of the world’s top ten rivers at risk. It has over 140 fish species,
90 amphibian species, and five areas which support birds found
nowhere else in the world. According to studies reported by
environmental engineer D.S. Bhargava of the University of Roorkee,
the Gange decomposes organic was 15 to 25 times faster than other
rivers. The Ganges has an extraordinarily high rate
of reaeration, the process by which it absorbs atmospheric
oxygen. When organic waste is dropped into it,
as much as 60 per cent of the BOD is processed within an hour. The
water quality samples also suggest
that the Ganges retains DO much longer than
does water from other rivers.
The flora and fauna found along Ganga banks are vital
to nutrient and water conservation, and control of soil erosion.
451 million people living in its basin are directly and indirectly
dependent upon the Ganga. Water by the monsoons,
this silt-enriched land produces a
significant portion of the rice, wheat, millet, sugar, and barley needed to
feed the world's second most populous nation. The
rain feds the land, dilutes the river's muddy stream,
flushes out excess sediment and suspended
matter, and revitalizes the river where its flow was sluggish.
The Ganges and its tributaries provide a perennial source
of irrigation to a large area.
The Ganges can swell a thousand-fold during the monsoons
The Ganga is one of the world’s most rapidly
shrinking rivers, a recent
study of 900 rivers in the world has found.
One of India’s most culturally and
economically important rivers is among
45 in the study that showed a statistically
significant reduction in discharge to
the ocean. In 2004, the Ganga had 20 per cent
less water than it did 56 years .The Allahabad
high court on January 12, 2011
asked the state
government to ensure maintaining
50 per cent of water level in the river Ganga
in the interest of general public.
Ganga and groundwater contamination
While pollution level in the holy Ganga is
becoming a grave concern for
scientists of the country,
threat of groundwater contamination is
also looming even larger than
anticipated and calling for urgent
measures
for its mitigation.
Today, over 29 cities, 70 towns, and thousands of villages
extend along the Ganga banks. Nearly all of their sewage –
over 1.3 billion liters per day - goes directly into the
river, along with thousands of animal carcasses, mainly
cattle. Another 260 million liters of
industrial waste are added to this by hundreds of
factories along the rivers banks. Municipal sewage
constitutes 80 per cent by volume of the total
waste dumped into the Ganga, and industries
contribute about 15 percent. The majority of the Ganga
pollution is organic waste, sewage, trash, food,
and human and animal remains. Over the past century, city
populations along the Ganga have grown at a tremendous
rate, while waste-control infrastructure
has remained relatively unchanged
The Ganga is also one of the rivers most
threatened by climate change.
According to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change looking
at the threat from climate change to human
development and the environment,
“only the polar icecaps hold more
fresh water than the Himalayan glaciers”:
“If the current trends of climate
change continue, by 2030 the size of the glaciers could
be reduced by as much as 80 per cent,”
warns the report, titled “Up in Smoke –
Asia and the Pacific”, released here in November 2007.
On September 22, 2008 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
has assured giving
river Ganga a national heritage status, a statement
by the Hardwar-based
Ganga Raksha Manch said. The prime minister pledged
to revive the glory of the
river and look into the issue of pollution in
the river along its stretch
from upper reaches in Hardwar to Ganga Sagar in the Bay of Bengal
After two Ganga Action Plans failed to deliver the goods,
seven major IITs of the
country have joined hands to find ways to clean up
the national river. After perusing a report submitted by
the seven IITs, namely IIT Kanpur, Mumbai,
Guwahati, Delhi, Kharagpur, Chennai and Roorkee,
the Union Ministry of Environment
and Forests has asked them June 10, 2010 to prepare a work plan for
National Ganga River Basin Authority in the next 18 months.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on June 10, 2010
approved a proposal for carrying
out the second phase of Ganga Action Plan worth Rs.496.90 crore
with Japanese assistance at Varanasi.
The Ganga Action Plan was initiated by the late
Prime Minster Indira Gandhi, who called for a
comprehensive survey of the situation in 1979. In 1985, the
government of India launched the Ganga Action Plan,
which was devised to clean up the
river in selected areas by installing sewage
treatment plants and threatening
fines and litigation against industries that pollute.
The 2006 official audit of the Ganga Action Plan
has revealed that it has met only 39 per cent of its sewage
treatment target. Moreover, the plan is behind schedule by over 13 years
According to the legal counsel, Central Pollution Control Board,
Mr Vijay Panjawani, even after spending Rs 24,000 crore,
the Ganga remains as dirty as ever.