The topic itself is self explanatory what is going to be the context of this article.The moment name Ganga we hear mind,thoughts of purity,sacredness and selfless love of mother comes to our mind. The Ganges is the most sacred river to Hindus. It is also a lifeline to millions of Indians who live along its course and depend on it for their daily needs.
River Ganga for India is not a just river it is worshipped as Goddess who nourishes millions of lives across its maternal shadow since ages.If we try to evaluate it on grounds of Indian mythology and ancient India,we can conclude that this river had not only religious bonding with people of this country,but also a one to one emotional connect,which can not be ignored. Everyday millions of devotees,take holy dip in this river with a hope that a single dip in this river will let them free from all sins and will lead to Moksha (the Real bliss)
Yes offcourse gradually with time its significance has gown down ,people being more inclined towards cities are not aware of its role played in our lives.It is the only river which starts from Himalayan caves and merges in to Bay of Bengal travelling more than 2500 kms and draining 9 states(including tributaries).Ganga river basin is the largest among river basins in India and the fourth largest in the world, with a basin (catchment area) covering 8, 61,404 sq km providing livelihood and foodgrains along its course to all without any discrimination.
India is blessed with such a perennial river which forms giant fertile Gangtic plain,it brings blend of minerals,herbs and fertile silt from Himalayas.It provides a rich ecosystem for aquatic life as well,till 18th century Ganga was used as internal river transport system.Even in pre-independence period during British colonial rule,Ganga was used as internal transport system for trade and travelling,Britishers used to transport cotton,Indigo,spices and raw materials through boats using river Ganga as water transport,cotton and textiles were transported from Kanpur till Howrah ( Kolkata today)and were sent to England & Europe through ships.It was a cost efficient and environment friendly transport as there were no jet engines available at that time.
The above facts are still very few too talk about this river,it has endless facts and human friendly benefits which we never will be able to repay to this river.
But now this river is fighting for its own existence,it is struggling for her identity.It is on the verge of extinction,Ganga glacier is shrinking due to glaobal warming,if we do not awake on time it will soon become a mythological river existing in books and pictures.
We have over exploited Ganga,it among one of the most polluted river in the country.It assimilates all kind os wastes,pesticides used in agriculture,urban solid garbage including thousands of animals’ carcasses and hundreds of human corpses are dumped in the river everyday ,toxics of industrual units are carelessly dumped in to it.Ganga has been used by us as a god gifted sewer line in which we are just throwing everything,we don't give a second thought while we dispose things in it.
As soon as Ganga enters plain land from Rishikesh,filth starts floating in to it,tourist in Rishikesh forget about this goddess while having fun during adventure water sports activities.And the story of filth goes on and keeps on multiplying as it steers ahead through northern plain lands.Once it reaches Kanpur the threshold of filthiness is reached,toxics and effulents from leather factories,solidwastes and city sewer is directly dumped in to it.The Ganga river water is brown or black in colour from Narora to Varanasi during the lean months. At Kanpur the water stinks even during the monsoon when the river is flooded.The river is littered with human corpses and animal carcasses throughout its course and the sight is truly offensive, repulsive, irritating, and disgusting and the oily blue-black stench of tannery waste is unbearable.
One can easily observe insects and microbes on the surface of river water,however we all know microbes and bacteria do not grow in moving water,they only can germinate when there is stagnency or contamination.We all are aware of medicinal benefits of Gangajal,it is a saying that there will be no microbes or bacteria can grow in this holy water even if it is preserved in bottles for years. I guess this saying is no more true nowadays. After Kanpur Ganga is nowhere worth taking a holy dip.
It is not the case that government has ignored this river,there were many schemes and plans made but that were only implemented inside files,nothing happened on actual grounds of reality.
One of the such plan was Ganga Action Plan,it was lanunched in 1986 by then Primeminister of India Rajive Gandhi,it was a complete failure. At the time of launching, the main objectives of GAP were to improve the water quality of Ganga to acceptable standards by preventing the pollution load reaching the river,to abate pollution and improve water quality, to conserve biodiversity and develop an integrated river basin management approach.In terms of execution GAP was failure,on records we were doing something to protect this heritage river but actually we did nothing.
We all know Prayag(Allahabad) & Varanasi which attracts millions of tourists every year and during Mahakumbh,this is all because of these heritage rivers Ganga & Yamuna,we are still gnoring them they are the source of revenue and livelihood.
I do not understand can't we see west and european countries how they are preserving there bio diversity and natural resources like rivers,small countries like England ,France and Germany has kept there rivers intact from pollution,they imposed strict laws for saving their reosurces,if one found guilty is prosecuted.Ok if we do not want to follow west ok ,just go back in time and see how our ancestors preserved cared and utilized these natural resources in optimum manner without doing any damage.There was a balanced approach which we are missing,we do not know the real worth of such beautiful gift from god given to all of us.We never gave a thought about it.The reason is we take natural resources like Air,Water,Sun & Earth for granted.But remember nature do not reciprocate in same way,we have witnessed Kedarnath cloud burst,there was no escape.
Now again people have awaken,new government has formed a separte department for rivers and Ganga is on top priority,again planning has begus lets hope that this time Ganga will be treated not for granted but as our responsibility and as cultural heritage.If we want Ganga in its purest form the way it is in Gangotri ,it needs strong determination and willingness by all of us,we all need to pledge that we will avoid contaminating and polluting this goddess river and ensure to spread awareness among others as well...else this river will be vanished soon from this planet and again some 'Bhgirath' will be required to bring down Ganga back from heaven.
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