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Ganga is symbol of India’s long culture and Civilization. Ganga is not only river with its benefits for its people but is Goddess to Hindus. She is supposed to purify we Hindus of all sins yet it is we who pollute it most—what a tragedy? She is mother of kumar Kartikeya, wife of Shantanu of Mahabharata, mother of Bisheem pitama. She is associated with trinity of GODS. Name a Hindu scripture where her name and fame is not discussed. She is supposed to have been brought down from heavens to mother Earth by Bhagirathi who wanted his ancestor’s souls to get released from the curse. Lest Earth would crack under its force lord SHIVA allowed her go through his matted hair before touching Earth. She is repeatedly mentioned in Vedas, SHASTRAS and Puranas. Dip in it washes man of his sins and a drop of its water given to dead makes his other world journey hassle free. If you drink at Gomukh you live for 100 years so goes legend. How come when we revere her most, yet pollute it most?
Geographically river Ganga starts from tip of Gangotri glacier which has shape of cow mouth—Gomukh. This glacier is 30 KM wide, 4500 meters [14000FT] above sea level. Water at this level is milky white. River which starts at Gomukh is called Baghirath. It flows for 50KM alone then river Alaknanda starts flowing side by side for 200 meters before it joins it at Devpreyag. Other rivers which also join it are, Dauliganga, Nandakini, Pinder and Mandakini. Now this river Ganga flows down south east for 2500 KM before it ends in bay of Bengal. River Yamuna joins it at ALLAHABAD. This river Ganga covers nearly one million square K Meters of north east India. It deposits 1.6 billion sediment, 4 times more than Amazon MAKING LAND MOST FERTILE. Ganga basin is 200-400 miles wide. Ganga is home to 140 fish species and 90 amphibian species. Its basin is home to 8% world population i.e. over 45 crore people. Having said all that about its importance yet paradoxically it is third most polluted river in world. It suffers from extreme pollution. Source of pollution is Agriculture, Domestic and residential waste, religious functions, industrial waste and animal waste. Over one lac land based animals die and decay in river. Practice of dumping dead human bodies and partially cremated bodies, chemicals used to cleanse wells, detergents used to bathe and wash clothes add insult to injury. Net result of this is danger to human beings living nearby and danger to living species in its water. There are already many fish species which have vanished and some other living species. At Varanasi alone 200 million liters of untreated human sewage is put in river every day. Sample of river water have shown 1.5 million fecal coliform bacteria/100ml. So drinking and bathing in its waters carries high risk of infection. Ganga with all its ecological stresses still supports aquatic life to maintain natural food chain. Ganga water does not putrefy, even after long storage is well known. East India company ships carried Ganga water on their 3 month long voyage back to England because it stayed “sweet and fresh”. British bacteriologist Ernest Hankin 1896 observed antibacterial activity of Ganga water against cholera vibrio. It was also seen that antibacterial activity of 10 year old Ganga water was better than boiled water, almost comparable to water passed through 0.2 umpore filter. Studies have shown that Ganga water indeed has certain novel antimicrobial attributes. Gangajal has super self-cleansing properties. Zooplankton which is a category of range of organisms, they feed on bacterioplankton, phytoplankton and other zooplankton. They are found in abundance in surface waters of Ganga. These zooplanktons help in maintaining food chain. Antimicrobial peptides [amp] are produced by plants, animals, insects and single celled organisms which have antimicrobial properties. Bacteriophages which feed on bacteria have been seen in Ganga water. 100 bacteriophages become, 100,000 in a matter of hour. This invisible breeding frenzy of bacteriophage stops disease before it can spread. So bacteriophages are working as natural disinfectant for water. Secondly, Ganga has dissolved oxygen in high concentration, 25 times more than other rivers. THIS high concentration of oxygen helps in breakdown of organic matter both animal and human in to small nutrients. This could be secret of survival of animals in this river. This high concentration of oxygen also sustains fish population which in turn sustains other living creatures in it. Ganga has extraordinary self-purifying abilities due to high content of dissolved oxygen, high rate of reaeration and very fast assimilation of putrefiable organic matter. It can remove 60% of all organic waste in first one hour while other rivers takes days. It also has been observed that Ganga water loses its disinfectant property on boiling. Bacteriophage activity which kill bacteria within short time help to avert epidemics during bathing festivals, Kumb mela etc. There is also release of small amounts of Copper and chromium from its sediment which also has bactericidal properties. Ganga ecosystem presents such an excellent biologic fabric that its self-purification capacity exceeds that of any other river. Finally, it is Ganga’s innate ability which keeps it from putrification and allows other creatures to survive despite our efforts to pollute it. But question is how long Ganga can cleanse itself? Shouldn’t we play our role to clean it and not pollute it. NDA govt. under Mr. Vajpayee did initiate process in this regard. Ganga action plan was drawn but that plan failed miserably. New govt. UNDER Mr. Modi also has Ganga cleansing programme on its agenda. Let us hope this time Ganga action plan is a success. A clean GANGA is life line of India and its culture. Let us restore Ganga back to its pristine glory. |
*Dr. Makhan Lal Babu, Born and brought up in Kashmir, lived in Kashmir till his migration from valley in 1990. Retired as Professor and Head Neurosurgery from Institute of Medical sciences, Soura, Srinagar. Has published a lot of professional articles, both in national and international journals. His interests, besides medicine, are in Ancient history of Kashmir, Vedas and Ancient India. His focus is educating youth who are fast losing track of their glorious roots and culture. |