Over the last year, NDTV along with a team from The Energy Research Institute travelled the length of the Ganga to understand the crisis the mother river is in. The Ganga is the most revered river in India but she is also routinely degraded with all the cities along her banks dumping waste into her water. We took samples of her water at key places, like Gangotri, Haridwar, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna and Kolkata to test for pollutants and heavy metals. Now in a series of documentaries we bring you our findings as well as the journey.
Maa Ganga: Killing Her Softly - Devotion and Desecration
Published On: September 20, 2014 | Duration: 21 min, 58 sec
For a year NDTV and a team from The Energy Research Institute (TERI) travelled the length of the Ganga, testing her waters. In this episode we bring you the shocking results of our study. The Ganga has unacceptable levels of Mercury contamination, a health hazard, it is also full of bacteria and feces. Yet people continue to worship the mother river, turning a blind eye to her desecration.
Maa Ganga: Killing Her Softly - Bihar to Bengal
After following the Ganga from Gangotri, through Uttar Pradesh, the NDTV and TERI team arrives in Bihar. Even here, our tests revealed high levels of bacteria contamination in the water, but it was also home to the endangered Gangetic river dolphin which gave us hope. The river then crosses to Bengal as the Hooghly, where once again household waste and industrial effluents are dumped into her waters. And before she enters the Bay of Bengal, her final gift, the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forests.
Maa Ganga: Killing Her Softly - Allahabad And Varanasi
The NDTV and TERI teams travel to the two holiest cities on river Ganga. On testing the water, they find that the Sangam city of Allahabad has the highest levels of mercury , while Varanasi has the highest levels of fecal coliform.
Maa Ganga: Killing Her Softly - Kanpur And Haridwar
In the third installment of the series on the Ganga, we travel to Haridwar where the first major diversion of river water takes place and rampant illegal mining of the river bed is underway. Then we go on to Kanpur where toxic chemicals like chromium, zinc, copper are dumped into the river, making it poisonous.
Maa Ganga: Killing Her Softly - Gangotri to Rishikesh
In this episode, we travel from where the Ganga originates at Gaumukh to Rishikesh before she emerges in the plains, and also the big debate on hydro-power projects on the river and its tributaries.
Over the last year, NDTV along with a team from The Energy Research Institute travelled the length of the Ganga to understand the crisis the mother river is in. The Ganga is the most revered river in India but she is also routinely degraded with all the cities along her banks dumping waste into her water. We took samples of her water at key places, like Gangotri, Haridwar, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna and Kolkata to test for pollutants and heavy metals. Now in a series of six documentaries, we bring you our findings as well as the journey.
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