History of Ganga River Essay

The gang up is one of the show rivers of the Indian subcontinent, flowing east by the Gangetic Plain of northern India into Bangladesh. The 2,510 km (1,560 mi) river rises in the western Himalayas in the Uttarakhand subject of India, and drains into the Sunderbans delta in the Bay of Bengal. It has long been considered a holy river by Hindus and worshiped as the goddess Ganga in Hinduism. It has also been important historic wholey umpteen approach patterner provincial or imperial capitals (such as Patliputra, Kannauj, Kara, Allahabad, Murshidabad,and Calcutta) have been located on its avows. The Ganges Basin drains 1,000,000-squ ar-kilometre (390,000 sq mi) and supports one of the worlds highest densities of human being. The average depth of the river is 52 feet (16 m), and the maximum depth, 100 feet (30 m). The river has been declared as Indias National River. The many an(prenominal) symbolic meanings of the river on the Indian subcontinent were spoken to in 1946 by Jawa harlal Nehru in his Discovery of India, The Ganges, above all is the river of India, which has held Indias heart captive and pull uncounted millions to her banks since the dawn of hi bosh.The story of the Ganges, from her opening to the sea, from old times to new, is the story of Indias civilization and culture, of the rise and fall of empires, of great and proud cities, of adventures of man. Although many small streams comprise the headwaters of the Ganges, the six longest headstreams and their five confluences are accustomed both cultural and geographical emphasis (see the map manoeuvering the headwaters of the river). The Alaknanda River meets the Dhauliganga River at Vishnuprayag, the Nandakini River at Nandprayag, the Pindar River at Karnaprayag, and the Mandakini River at Rudraprayag and finally the Bhagirathi River at Devprayag, to form the mainstream, the Ganges. The Bhagirathi is the showtime stream it rises at the foot of Gangotri Glacier, at Gaumukh, at an elevation of 3,892 m (12,769 ft).The headwaters of the Alaknanda are formed by snowmelt from such peaks as Nanda Devi, Trisul, and Kamet. Ganga River is also tell to be the river of supreme Lord Rama and also called Ram Ganga as in that respect is a belief Lord Rama promised while Ganges emerged from his feet that, when He ordain appear on earth as Lord Rama pull up s controls lodge in on the banks of Ganga and her tributaries. Lord Ram then appeared in Ayodhya which is on the banks of Saryu Ganga River, when he went to Janakpuri he go through River Ganga in Haridwar.Duringhis 14 days exile from Sita, his married woman and brother Lakshmana after leaving Ayodhya his first night stay was at Tamsa River (Ganga tributaries), his second stay was at Shrungverpur which is on the banks of Ganga and with the help of Nishadraj Gruh and Kevat he crossed Ganga, he then went to Triveni sangam, Prayag Raj stayed with Muni Bharadvaj and then marched towards Chitrakoot and stayed there for 11 and ha lf years on Kamadgiri parvat on the banks of Mandakini, holy stream. From there he went to Panchvati and stayed on the bank of Godavari until his wife sitaji was abducted by demon king Ravana. The search for his beloved wife Sita, Lord Rama went to Rameshwaram, as it is said all rivers meet the ocean.Pollution in Ganga RiverToday, over 29 cities, 70 towns, and thousands of villages extend on the Ganga banks. Nearly all of their sewage over 1.3 gazillion liters per day goes directly into the river, along with thousands of brute carcasses, mainly cattle. Another 260 million liters of industrial waste are added to this by hundreds of factories along the rivers banks. Municipal sewage constitutes 80 per cent by majority of the total waste dumped into the Ganga, and industries contribute active 15 percent. The majority of the Ganga befoulment is organic waste, sewage, trash, food, and human and puppet remains. Over the past century, city populations along the Ganga have grown a t a tremendous rate, while waste-control floor has remained relatively unchanged. Recent water samples collected in Varanasi revealed fecal-coliform counts of about 50,000 bacteria per 100 milliliters of water, 10,000% higher than the political relation standard for safe river bathing. The result of this taint is an array of water-borne diseases including cholera, hepatitis, typhoid and amoebic dysentery.An estimated 80% of all health problems and trey of deaths in India are attributable to water-borne diseases. The sacred practice of depositing human remains in the Ganga also poses health threats because of the unsustainable rate at which partially cremated cadavers are dumped. In Varanasi, some 40,000 cremations are performed each year, most on woods pyres that do not completely consume the body. Along with the remains of these traditionalistic funerals, there are thousands more who cannot afford cremation and whose bodies are simply propel into the Ganga. In addition, the carcasses of thousands of dead cattle, which are sacred to Hindus, go into the river eachyear. An incompetent cremation procedures contributes to a large number of partially burnt or unburnt corpses float down the Ganga. Hundreds of corpses burn on the line of wooden pyres. Soot-covered men bunko game about, raking in the still-glowing ashes, sweeping them into the river.Gray dust from the pyres floats atop the waves, mixing with bill garlands and foam. The dust and debris resurfaces some distance away, this time, intermixed with polythene bags, empty cans and corrupting clothes. This is the holy Ganga at its holiest spot Varanasi. The industrial pollutants also a major source of contamination in the Ganga. A total of 146 industries are report to be located along the river Ganga surrounded by Rishikesh and Prayagraj. 144 of these are in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) and 2 in Uttrakhand. The major polluting industries on the Ganga are the leather industries, specially near Kanpur, whic h use large amounts of Chromium and other toxic chemic waste, and much of it finds its way into the meager flow of the Ganga. From the plains to the sea, pharmaceutical companies, electronics plants, textile and story industries, tanneries, fertilizer manufacturers and oil refineries discharge effluent into the river.This hazardous waste includes hydrochloric acid, hectogram and other heavy metals, bleaches and dyes, pesticides, and polychlorinated biphenyls highly toxic compounds that accumulate in animal and human tissue. The tannery industry mushrooming in North India has converted the Ganga River into a toss out ground. The tanning industry discharges different types of waste into the environment, primarily in the form of liquid effluents containing organic matters, chromium, sulphide ammonium and other salts. According to the discipline obtained from the UP State Pollution Control Board, there are 402 tanneries run in the city Kanpur of which 65 were closed On September 1 7, 2010 return notices to 253 tanneries operating in the city, the State Pollution Control Board has asked them to come with central norms to curb pollution within 15 days or face consequences. A division bench of the Allahabad high court on January 19, 2011 asked UP chief secretary, who was present in the court, to file an affidavit about the action taken against those who were institute involved in polluting river Ganga.The bench will now hear this case on February 14, next. The bench expressed relate over the pollution in river Ganga and said that at Sangam in Allahabad river Ganga is dark and its colour is brown. Ganga is getting polluted day-by-day. Nearly 170factories and tanneries located between Kannauj and Varanasi, covering an area of 450 km, were found responsible for polluting the river by discharging wastes into it without treatment, Union pastor for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh told reporters on August 28, 2010. The government will issue show cause notic es to these industrial units on August 30 and if they fail to take any action within 15 days, steps would be initiated to omit them, he said. In 1996, the Supreme Court had censor the discharge of effluents from dissimilar tanneries and factories located on its banks in Kanpur. However, industry is not the only source of pollution. Sheer volume of waste estimated at nearly 1 billion litres per day of mostly untreated raw sewage is a substantial factor.Runoff from farms in the Ganga basin adds chemical fertilizers and pesticides such as DDT, which is banned in the United States because of its toxic and carcinogenic effects on humans and wildlife. Damming the river or diverting its water, mainly for irrigation purposes, also adds to the pollution crisis. Atmospheric proof of heavy metals emitted from vehicles and presence of industrial units adjoining the Ganges is adding to the pollution preventative on the river, researchers have found on May 2010. Decades-long efforts by th e government to breathe life into Ganga through massive clean-up programmes have come to naught. date this Over Rs 1,000 crore have been pumped into the Ganga Action Plan I and II between 1985 and 2000, but Indias holiest river is still sullied.Discharge of untreated wastewater from towns along Ganga constitutes the major source of pollution load for the river. Against the estimated wastewater generation of almost 3000 million liters per day (mld) from towns along the river Ganga, sewage treatment capacity of 1025 mld has been created so far under the Ganga Action Plan. This information was given by the minister of State for Environment and Forests(Independent Charge) Shri Jairam Ramesh in Rajya Sabha on August 02, 2010.The incidence of cheekiness bladder disease is high among people living near the Ganga and its tributaries, says the largest-ever study of the local population over six years.A team of doctors from Mumbai conducted the study and found high concentrations of heavy metals in the water and soil of 60 villages along the Indo-Gangetic plains that could be contributing to the disease. The study was published last week of January 2011 in the online edition of HPB, the official journal of the International Hepato-Pancreato-BiliaryAssociation. It has identified eight villages in Bihars Vaishali district, located near the river Gandak, with an unusually high rate of jaundice bladder disease.