India -
India's holy Ganges begins as a crystal clear river high in the
icy Himalayas but pollution and excessive usage transforms it
into toxic sludge on its journey through burgeoning cities,
industrial hubs and past millions of devotees.
Worshipped by a billion Hindus and a water source for 400
million, "Mother Ganga" is dying, despite decades of government
efforts to save it.
Lokesh Sharma, a 19-year-old priest in Devprayag, a small
hill town where two rivers converge to form the Ganges, is his
family's fourth generation to lead riverbank prayers.
"I never thought of going somewhere else and settling.
Devprayag is a heaven for me. I feel blessed to be born next to
Mother Ganges," Sharma said, as chanting priests and devotees,
some bottling the water, dunk themselves in the fast-flowing
river.
Thousands of Indians immerse themselves and idols of their
gods every day, believing a dip in the Ganges absolves a
lifetime of sins. People drink the water and use it for crops.
But the pristine waters soon becomes a distant memory as the
2,525 km-long (1,570 mile) Ganges snakes its way down to the
densely populated plains of north India, where too much water is
sucked out to maintain a healthy flow.
Sliding under bridges in the industrial city of Kanpur, the
water's colour turns dark grey.
Industrial waste and sewage pour in from open drains, as
clouds of foam float on its surface.
At one stretch, the river turns red.
Nearby, tannery workers haul chemical-soaked buffalo hides
into huge drums. The filthy run-off is dumped in the river.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has pledged to
build more treatment plants and move more than 400 tanneries
away from the river, but his $3 billion clean-up plan is badly
behind schedule.
Less than a quarter of an estimated 4,800 million litres of
sewage that flow daily into the river from main towns and cities
is treated.
POLLUTION-FREE PRAYERS
The sorry state of the Ganges is most keenly felt in
Varanasi, the ancient and most holy of cities for Hindus.
Religious students practise yoga, pilgrims seek spiritual
purification and families cremate their dead by the water's
edge, scattering ashes so that souls go to heaven and escape the
cycle of rebirth.
Along the bathing ghats, prayers invoking followers to keep
the Ganges clean fill the hot evening air.
"I remember earlier the water was very clean and we could
drink it," said 58-year-old boatman Anil Sahni. "Now you can't
even bathe in it."
As the river widens it curves southwards, towards the Bay of
Bengal, passing thousands more villages and swelling cities.
In the 14-million strong metropolis of Kolkata, people bathe
and brush their teeth next to towering mounds of rubbish. On the
outskirts, brick kilns and factories line the river banks.
Downstream, a packed ferry sets off for Sagar Island, or
Ganga Sagar, a magnet for Hindu pilgrims that marks the point
where the Ganges meets the sea.
"I feel sad about what's happening around us. The Ganges is
getting dirty day by day but nobody cares. Not even its
children," said 66-year-old priest Ashok Kumar in Mirzapur, a
riverside carpet and brass ware hub.
"The Ganges is our mother. There won't be any future if she
dies."