Saving River Ganga

Decoding India's lifeline: River Ganga

The Centre and state governments are taking measures to save river Ganga on a war-footing. With the Ganga Restoration Project, the Govt has said that stringent action will be taken against people and units found to be polluting the river and adjoining areas.

The Himalayas are the source of three major Indian rivers namely the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra.

The Ganges river is becoming shallower in some area. Some attribute this water level change to climate change and global warming. As a part of natural process (and as scientists believe, with a little help of deforestation and pollution), Ganga is sifting! In Haridwar, Ganga has shifted by 500 metres from its original course. This continued shifting trend can wreak havoc on farming settlements in Ganga plains. In last 30 years, the shift has increased significantly. In Bihar, the river has shifted by 2.5 kilometres since 1990.

1. The river Ganges, also known as the Ganga, flows 2,525 kilometres from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal through India and Bangladesh.
2. The Ganga begins in the Himalayas’ Gangotri Glacier. The glacier sits at an elevation of 3,892 metres (12,769 feet).
3. The average depth of the river is 16 metres (52 feet), and the maximum depth, 30 metres (100 feet).
4. The major rivers which flow into the Ganga are: Ramganga, Gomti, Ghaghara, Gandaki, Burhi Gandak, Koshi, Mahananda, Tamsa, Yamuna, Son and Punpun.
5. The Ganges Basin with its fertile soil is instrumental to the agricultural economies of India and Bangladesh. The Ganges and its tributaries provide a year-round source of irrigation to a large area. Chief crops cultivated in the area include rice, sugarcane, lentils, oil seeds, potatoes, and wheat.
6. The Ganges basin extends over more than 1 million square kilometres. It has the highest population of any river basin in the world. It contains over 400 million people.
7. The Ganga Basin supports numerous diverse ecosystems, from the alpine forests near Gaumukh to the plains of northern India to the mangrove forests and saline mud flats of West Bengal.
8. The mouth of River Ganga forms the world's largest delta, known as Sunderbans, and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997. It covers more than 105,000 square kilometres.
9. The river flows through 29 cities with population over 100,000, 23 cities with population between 50,000and 100,000, and about 48 towns.
10. On the Ganges banks are India's greatest pilgrimage sites like Rishikesh, Haridwar, Varanasi, Allahabad and Kolkata, which are visited by millions of people from every corner of the world to quench their thirst for knowledge and liberation

Purifying Mystery

In  1896, a British bacteriologist Ernest Hanbury Hankin tested the bacterium Vibrio Cholerae that causes the deadly disease cholera, and found that this bacterium died within three hours when put into the waters of Ganga. Studies have shown that the Ganges River decomposes organic waste at a rate 15 to 25 times faster compared to other rivers in the world. In a study conducted by the Malaria Research Centre in New Delhi, it was observed that water from the upper ambits of Ganga did not host mosquito breeding, and also prevented mosquito breeding if added to other water sources. DS Bhargava, an environmental engineer of hydrology, has spent a lifetime studying the amazing properties of Ganga. He measured the remarkable self-cleansing ability of the river in an exhaustive three-year study which showed that Ganga is able to reduce its biochemical oxygen demand levels much faster than other rivers! Bhargava says that the self-purifying quality of this river leads to oxygen levels that are 25 times higher than any other river in the world. The Ganges cleans up suspended wastes 15 to 20 times faster when compared to other rivers! Why? The presence of Bacteriophages which gives it the anti-bacterial nature. Bacteriophage are those viruses which kill bacteria. What a cat is to a mouse, the bacteriophage is to a bacterium. In fact what Hankin reported in 1896 about the antibacterial nature of Ganges was the first modern observation/documentation of a Bacteriophage! It was Herelle (who again observed the anti-bacterial nature of Ganges) who coined the term Bacteriophage (meaning bacteria eater) for these viruses. The high levels of oxygen in the waters of Ganga gives it the unique ability to remain fresh over a prolonged period of time. The waters of Ganga when added to other water resources in adequate amount, causes the bacteriophage in it to quickly multiply cleaning the new water resource of any bacteria present in it. Which is why the ancient Indians used to take Ganga Jal (Hindi for water) back home to clean their local water resources!

Ganga River Basin Management Plan

A comprehensive River Basin Management Plan for Ganga is being prepared by the consortium of seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs' Kanpur, Delhi, Madras, Bombay, Kharagpur, Guwahati and Roorkee). The plan is being prepared with the objectives of taking comprehensive measures for restoration of the wholesomeness of the Ganga ecosystem and improvement of its ecological health, with due regard to the issue of competing water uses in the river basin. The wholesomeness of the river can be grasped in terms of four defining concepts: ‘Aviral Dhara’ (continuous flow), ‘Nirmal Dhara’ (unpolluted flow), geologic entity, and ecological Entity.

UP GOVT TAKES LEAD IN FAITH TOURISM

Recently, the UP government said that it is working on reviving as many as 19 rivers that were almost dead and could have been termed endangered. Two of the rivers, Mandakini and Tamsa, that have mythological significance, have already been revived while work is under progress on the remaining 17 rivers. These rivers include Tedhi, Manorama, Pandu, Varuna, Sasur Khadedi, Sai, Aril, Morva, Naad, Karnawati, Baan, Sot, Kaali Poorvi, Dadhi, Eshan, Boodhi Ganga and Gomti. Want to catch the famous Ganga Aarti on the ghats of Varanasi without the hassle of wading through an uproarious crowd? Or are you keen to view the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers at the Triveni Sangam in Allahahad- from the sky? FAITH TOURISM just got a leg up in UP, with the state's tourism department planing to launch two projects, the “Heli-Ganga-Aarti“ and “Triveni Darshan” under the first phase of its spiritual tourism project.