Introduction: Ganga River known as Ganga Maata or mother Ganges is treated as God by Hindus which believes to clean the sins and the dead on their path to heaven. In most of Hindu families a vial of water from Ganga is kept in every house. It is believed that drinking water from Ganga at the time of death will take the soul to heaven. All Hindu believes that without bathing in Ganga life is incomplete so they should take bath at least once in their life. Hindus largest mela Kumbh ka mela is celebrated at the bank of Ganga. Ganga is believed to be a symbol of faith, hope, substance and sanity therefore it is called national river of India. Ganga passes through various holy sites like Haridwar, Allahbad and Varanasi. The Ganga collects large amount of human pollutants and when it is at the end in Bengal it becomes so dirty that people cannot recognize it.   Source of Ganga; Gumukh in the Uttrakhand Himalayas is the origin of Bhagirathi River. Gumukh is at the altitude of about 4000 meters.23 Kms from Gaumukh, the river reaches Gangotri, the first town of its path. Several people come to Gaumukh each year. Gangotri is situated at a height of more than 10000 feet in Uttrakashi district where is situated one of the dham (Badrinath ,Kedarnath and Yamunotri) Ganga in Hindu religion: Ganga is believed to be the sacred river and is worshipped by Hindus as Goddess. Hindu believes that bathing in the river on specific occasions causes forgiveness of sins. People from distant places too come to take bath in the holy river. There is belief- in Hindu religion about Ganga that when the king named Bhagiratha prayed to Brahma that Ganga should come on to earth Brahma agreed and ordered Ganga to come down for this Ganga felt insulted and thought of destroying earth by its flow from heaven Bhagiratha then prayed to Shiva to break up Ganga's descent. Ganga angrily fell on Shiva's head but Shiva trapped her in his hair and let her out in less flow. Because of Bhagiratha Ganga came down to earth from heaven so she is named Bhagirathi too. Ganga River in plains: Ganga flows through the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal. Ganga flows through populous places like Allahabad, Varanasi, Kanpur, Patna, and Kolkata. Two of the biggest rives of India Yamuna and Sarawati meets Ganga at Varanasi which is a holy place for Indians and people come to Varanasi just to see this Sangam. Pollution in Ganga: Ganga is the first on the list among the most polluted rivers in the world. Ganga is still getting polluted by people despite alarming levels people still continue to wash clothes, dump dead bodies and many more things which are polluting the river's purity. Today over 35 cities, 80 towns and thousands of villages extend along Ganga bank and nearly all their sewage over 1.5 billion liters/day goes down directly in to river along with thousands of animal wastes. Another 300 million liters of industrial waste is added to this by 1000 of factories along its bank. Municipal sewage constitutes 75% by volume of the total waste dumped in to the river and industries contribute 20 %.The majority of pollution of organic waste, sewage, food and human and animal remains.   Hundreds of corpses burned near the bank of Ganga and the waste is put in the river. Ganga is getting polluted day by day. Nearly 170 factories located between Varanasi and Kanauj covering an area of 500 Kms were found responsible for polluting the river by discharging wastes in to it without treatment. In 1996 Supreme Court had banned the discharge of pollutants located on its banks. The factories of Kanpur are responsible for 7% of pollution in the river.

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