Ganges River
From ArticleWorld
The 2510 km long Ganges River or the River Ganga as it is called in India is formed near Deoprayag by the union of the two rivers Bhagirathi and Alaknanda. The Gangotri glacier of the Northern Himalayas is the place of origin of the river Bhagirathi.From Deoprayag, Ganges flows through the Gangetic plains of North India before entering Bangladesh. Then it encircles the mangrove forest called Sundarbans in the delta before joining the Bay of Bengal. Sundarbans is the living place of the Royal Bengal species of tiger. The Ganges river dolphin, the Irawady dolphin and the rare Glyphis gangeticus which is a shark of fresh water are a few species which live in Ganges river.
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Tributaries and Distributaries
- Yamuna River, a major tributary joins Ganges at Allahabad, a place of pilgrimage
- Hoogly River near Kolkata and Padma River which joins Jamuna River in Bangladesh are the two major distributaries.
Sacred places along the banks
- Allahabad
- Varanasi
- Haridwar
Mythology
Once, King Sagara was performing rituals which included a horse, for the wellbeing of his people. To stop that Indra took away the horse. The sixty thousand magically acquired sons of the King went to earth to retrieve it. They mistook that Saint Kapila who was doing penance closing his eyes for several years, has stolen it, as it was found near him in the underworld. They got angry and insulted him and disturbed his penance. Kapila got furious over this. He opened his eyes and burnt all the sixty thousand to death. As the final rites were not performed, they roamed around as ghosts. Dilip’s son Baghiratha belonging to King Sagara’s dynasty prayed to Brahma, to send Ganga to remove all their sins so that they can go to heaven.Ganga who was created by Brahma, from the sweat of Lord Vishnu got humiliated by this. She decided to wipe out every thing on earth by falling on it. Bhagiratha got scared by this and asked for Lord Shiva’s help. When Ganga fell on the earth, Shiva held her on his head and entangled her with his hair. He released her slowly to flow as rivulets. It was because of Bhagiratha that Ganga came to earth. So river Ganges is also called Bhagirathi.It is also called Jahnvi which means daughter of Jahnu.Jahnu was a saint whose penance was disturbed by Ganga when she started flowing with rough tides on her way to meet Bhagiratha.Jahnu got angry and drank all the water of Ganga. As Ganga’s mission was interrupted, the gods got worried and they requested him to release her. Jahnu obliged and released her through his ears. This is the reason behind the name Jahnvi. Ganga is worshiped as goddess who brought up Karthikeya, the son of Lord Shiva and Parvathi.Hindus believe that a holy dip in river Ganga remove all the sins. Disposing the ashes in it makes a person live a better life in his rebirth and reach heaven. This is the reason why the Hindus visit Ganga and take bath in it and worship it.
Pollution
Because of the high fertility of soil, the banks of the river are densely inhabitated. Estimates show that every 12th person in the world live along the banks of this river. And this is the reason for the pollution of the river. The river Ganges is grossly polluted by
- Human excreta
- Chemical wastes like chromium of the leather industries of Kanpur
- One billion liters of untreated waste matter every day
- Human and cattle dead bodies both burnt and unburnt
The Indian Government with the help of the British and Dutch Governments and a few voluntary organizations has implemented the Ganga Action plan at a cost of $33 million. This effort, though not supported by the religious political parties, is turning out to be very fruitful as the satellite images taken in the beginning of 2006 showed clear water in the river.