GANGA - The gift of nature

India is one of the oldest civilizations of the world that flourished along the Indus and the Ganga. This civilization has given in abundance to the world heritage.

Ganga, the site of the Vedas, Upanishads and Purana’s, the mother medicine of the world AYURVEDA and other sciences, is being destroyed from its Himalayan source onwards. Around 40 Km down the Glacier, the forest is being destroyed to make another of the several dams. Uttarkashi, the holy city of the temples (located 118 Km downstream from the Glacier), is destroyed by putting the river of great cultural and social importance into a tunnel. In brief, the Ganga that flowed for thousands of years in this area is dry. Its entire fauna has dried out or eaten up. Contractors and local looters are plundering its stones and sand. 

All the Ashrams along its banks, where people from all over the world come to learn yoga, meditation, Ayurveda and other healing practices have become redundant without the energy of the Ganga with its timeless water (no bacteria or fungus attacks Ganga water when kept in a bottle even for hundred years) and beautiful music of its rapids in this area. All that is a thing of the past. Ganga is dried by the anti-nature, anti-human, anti-environment policy makers. In a severe indictment of efforts to clean up the Ganga, a study conducted by the National Cancer Registry Program has found that those living along the banks of the river are more prone to cancer than others in the country.

Thanks to years of relentless discharge of effluents, including toxic industrial wastes such as arsenic, fluoride and other heavy metals, cases of gall bladder cancer along the course of the river are the second highest in the world while incidence of prostate cancer is the highest in the country. The authorities take little cognizance of the Ganga being the most important river system in India, with almost half the population of the country dependent on its waters. 

There is a saying ''For the want of a nail, the horseshoe couldn't be fixed, for the want of the horseshoe ,the horse couldn't run, for the want of the horse, the message couldn't deliver on time, and for the want of the message the war was lost.'' 

The want here is to recognize the importance of nature's gift to us-The Ganga and treat it with due respect for the selfless service this mother has done for its children-we humans.

Shyam Sengupta

PGPMC

2nd sem