Ganga, the national river of India, is now sadly depleted in flow and utterly polluted due to construction of dams and barrages, discharge of untreated municipal and industrial wastes, floral offerings, cremation of dead bodies.
The Ganga has a course of about 2525 km length,
winding through the states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, West Bengal, and draining parts of Himachal Pradesh,
Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh before
debouching in to the Bay of Bengal. It is one of the largest
river basins of the world covering 26.3% of the country’s
total geographical area. It has a number of tributaries, the
Yamuna being the largest of all. Its perennial flow is fed by
monsoon and partially by the Himalayan glacier melt.
Gifted naturally with large freshwater resources and vast
fertile lands, the basin has the distinction of being one of
the most populated (with a total population of 337,861,976)
and intensely cultivated regions in the world, being the
food basket of one crore people of the land and the chief
source for drinking, irrigation and industrial needs.
Therefore, it is but natural that the country is concerned
with the health of the river regime, – its flow and purity of
water.
