A river of national importance

Ganga, the river, in true means is a mother. She gives the love and resource to sustain, and yet in the end men turn their backs at it and leave back with plastics, flowers, ashes, candles and discarded clothes on the bank, to flow away with the currents of the river. Yet again they come back to pay their homage when someone dies, and end up putting in a few more dead flowers.

Imagine the fate of the river that commutes over 2500kms, almost through a hundred cities, across four states into a vast ocean; and what does it take along except liter? Throughout the year, everyday millions of Indians pay homage to the river on its banks, and undoubtedly contribute towards curbing its beauty. The waters of the Ganga that is considered so sacred that no change is observed in its form even after years of storage, has actually started stinking and rotting at many places near industrial sites and dense populations.

The Ganga pollution and ways to overcome it is one of the biggest challenge that our nation faces at the present time. In a 2007 survey, Ganga was termed the fifth most polluted river in the world, which followed with no signs of recovery. The pollution of the river is a serious threat to more than a hundred species of aquatic species and the Ganga dolphins have also been termed endangered in the recent past. Considering humans, the threat is even bitter and consequences more fatal.

The amount of garbage dumped actively, passively and sacredly in the Ganga annually, can form a huge mountain chain across several kilometers. Though Ganga is a river of the living, but it is treated like that of the dead. The purest soul contribute to the most irreversible deeds, leaving a big black spot and later wondering how to erase it.

Imagine the pleasure of seeing transparent blue waters in the entire river until it exits into the Bay of Bengal. Imagine people sitting by the banks of Ganga, hands folded and lips murmuring mantras while the breeze sways away the hair. Families taking a stroll by the river in the evening as sacred music plays soft beats to the ears. Temples on the bank light up with dias and candles as people gather in the temple compound to take an aarti of the river, without approaching its waters. The rituals don't change, only the medium does.

A pollution free river awaits its dawn on the farther end, only we need to realise the importance of the objective.