The Ganges River, highly revered in Hinduism, has become severely polluted with human waste. An estimated 2.9 billion liters of raw sewage enters the river daily from cities along its banks. Environmental activists who cycled along major rivers in the Indo-Gangetic plains found the rivers resembled sewage and were unfit for bathing. The Ganga Action Plan of the 1980s failed to effectively reduce river pollution despite large investments. Rapid industrialization and lack of forest cover have led to further degradation of the environment. Urgent global action is needed to address pollution and protect the planet for future generations.

1. No My Friend, The River Ganga Is
Not So Pure Anymore
By Pooja Baburaj

2. Due respects.. Really?
• The Ganga, the largest river in India with an extraordinary
religious importance for Hindus has been littered with waste
of possibly every shape, color and size.
• Along its banks are some of the world’s oldest inhabited
places like Varanasi and Patna.
• The highlight, however, remains our method of expressing
reverence and awe – discharging an estimated 2.9 billion
liters or more of human sewage into the Ganges daily.

3. Holy-shit and garbage
• The famed rivers of Indo-Gangetic plains are turning into
“sewage system“, threatening the life and health of millions
of people dependent on them, warned a team of 11
environmental activists who cycled through the region
covering around 1,800km in 27 days.
• These activists are a part of a project called‘Yatra’ that aims
to raise awareness about the need for keeping an account of
India’s natural resources.

4. Padma Shri Awardee Anil P Joshi
speaks
• “Not one river was fit to bathe in. The water at many places
resembled sewage water. Among the most polluted rivers we
came across was the Yamuna in western UP, Varuna and
Gandak,”

5. A GAP in Ganga Action Plan?
• The Ganga Action Plan or GAP launched by Rajiv Gandhi in
April 1986 in order to reduce the pollution load on the river, in
unable to translate the crores of capital invested into an
effective programme lead to the withdrawal of the
programme in 2000.
• Since then several NGOs have walked the lead in continuing
the cleaning programs that were originally initiated by the
government.
• It isn’t just the rivers that they are worried about.
• They said none of the states they travelled through had
achieved even half of India’s target of 33% area under
forests.

6. The Mayans are right about the
earth’s destruction
• We are gradually killing the existence of Mother Nature and it
isn’t something to be left unnoticed.
• The ominous signs have been set in live action.
• These days, we step out with a shawl wrapped around us like
that of a mummy in Cairo Museum just so that our skin does
not shed like that of a reptile, the hair follicles does not get
clogged with dirt and our lungs don’t burst with all that
green-house gases that we take in.
• Away from the cities and into the poles, an iceberg melts
every instant, melting away part of our future life with it into
the deep blue sea, into the void.

7. Earth or nothing else
• Twenty years ago the news of the pollution hit headlines of
all the top magazines and predicted possible death of the
planet population in twenty years.
• Today we are still talking about it, now more accelerated by
the rapid industrialization.
• Our landscapes have changed radically; the forest soil now
grows commercial crops and has roads, highways and
skyscrapers running over it.
• Pollution is a global issue, as we often hear about it on radio
and TV, generally followed by strong and convincing call for
action.
• It’s time that we stop switching channels and join in the effort
to save our home planet – Mars isn’t ready for us as of now.

8. • Read more on Youth Ki Awaaz at http://bit.ly/13WDcCb