Ganga: The Sacred Lifeline [Part-1]

Ganga, India’s holiest and most sacred river, flows from Lord Shiv Ji’s head (this is mythological). Geographically, it originates from the extreme northern pole of India, the Himalayas; it originates from a very auspicious vent known as ‘Gaumukh’, which is related to the mouth of a cow, and thus its auspiciousness is many fold for the Hindus.

The gradual melting of the Gaumukh glacier gives rise to this divine water body, lovingly and respectfully called Maa Ganga. When it is born, it is in the form of a small rivulet emerging from the Gaumukh glacier, surrounded by gagged limestone rocks. When the water runs through these limestone rocks, it appears as divine, frothy milk.

That tiny little rivulet takes the form of a massive water body paving its path through Himalayan terrains, carving its path lake a dancing princess in the form of Mandakini, rendering life to the nearby places residing close to its banks, snarling through Devprayag, Rudraprayag, and so as to say many places where the primary pollution levels start.

As the divine river changes places, its name also changes. Sometimes Bhagirathi, Mandakini, and Nandakini merge together to give birth to the divine mother river, Maa Ganga. The places that are at its banks have earned fame as global religious tourist destinations; thus, the pollution level also elevates by the time the Maa Ganga flat lands of Haridwar, Rishikesh, become less decelerated, so the extent of the pollution can be felt.

As it is, these cities are quite huge compared to the mountain destinations, and the population also increases many fold, which gives rise to small industries, resulting in more pollution as all the drainage is meant to be joined together in Maa Ganga without any treatment. A heartwarming thanks to all the bacteria that decompose the pollutants, rendering a healthy water resource to mankind.

The pollution story doesn’t end here but increases multi million times, by the time Maa Ganga little tired reaches the plains of Allahabad and Varanasi the picture gets more somber as Varanasi is famous for different 84 ghats like the world famous Manikarnika ghat and so on, which is considered as a gateway to reach heaven straight or ‘moksha’ for that in return people come there from all over India and abroad to do their loved departed ones either by dipping their holy ashes and there also few many who’s last rites are performed there 24/7 in return all their burn and unburnt dead bodies merge straight into the water, the religious rituals also lend hands aggravating the pollution levels to its highest.

The industrial waste is needless to mention. From here on, Maa Ganga takes its path, loathing with all the sins, sorrows, agonies, etc. of all the people who consider Maa Ganga their lifeline, and she is the only one to rescue them from all their sins.

Heaving with mountainous loads of pollution, it reaches the plains of Kanpur, where the backlash is done by the leather industries, where all the toxic effluents straight away drain into the Ganges, increasing the toxicity to fatal parameters, murderous not only for humans but also to aquatic systems and also to the agricultural land that uses the water for irrigation, affecting the food chain of cattle, herbivores, carnivores, and ultimately the decomposers.