ALLAHABAD: Tension mounted at Salaiya Kalan village of Meja Tehsil here on Thursday noon when agitated villagers came face to face with the district administration and started throwing stones on th

Even as denizens of Sangam City joined crores of other Indians in celebrating the festival of lights, few gave a thought to purchasing ecofriendly idols.

On Saturday, people made beelines at stalls selling idols of Lord Ganesha and Laxmi. However, while most chose the brightest and most colourful idols, only some gave a thought that many such idols would eventually end up polluting rivers with lethal metals like lead.

The city is fast transforming into a concrete jungle and while some call it development others are worried for the future of the Sangam city in terms of availability of underground water. The depleting green cover of the city has affected adversely the underground water level of localities in the past 25 years.

TOI spoke to associated professor at the department of Geography, of Allahabad University, A R Siddiqui who has undertaken an extensive survey of the declining vegetative cover of the city, the decrease in level of underground water on the basis of which he has identified vulnerable areas too along with the danger looming on these areas.

ALLAHABAD: Although seers and pilgrims coming to MahaKumbh, or otherwise too, have time and again raised their voice against the falling level of water in the holy Ganga, the actual area of concern

ALLAHABAD: Taking up the cause of freeing Ganga from pollution, Australian national Andrew Turner, 45, will swim against the current of the river. At Sangam along with his family and friends from Australia and Canada, Turner is launching from Thursday a boat built by himself and named Karuna to ferry pilgrims free.

Participating in the mega Maha Kumbh again was a long cherished dream for Andrew and his companions since they attended the first pilgrimage way back in 1989. Andrew had tried to be there for Maha Kumbh in 2001 but could not make it.

ALLAHABAD: Agitated over high levels of pollution and shallow water in the holy Ganga, the Shankracharyas, seers and Dandi swamis, along with all the akaharas, are all set to repeat the feat of 2010 Mahakumbh of Hardwar — boycott the next 'Shahi Snan' on Mauni Amavasya scheduled for February 10.

These saints, on Friday, threatened that if the situation remained unchanged, they will not bathe in the next Shahi Snan. The alarming condition of the holy river, besides instigating saints to boycott the Shahi Snan, has become the poll plank for various political parties in the forthcoming general elections of 2014.

ALLAHABAD: Alarmed over the ever increasing level of pollution in the Ganga, especially in the backdrop of ongoing MahaKumbh and TOI publishing news on the deteriorating condition of the river, plu

Allahabad: In the first such study, social psychologists from British and Indian universities have found that kalpwasis, rural pilgrims who live in the Sangam area for one month every year in Janua

Allahabad: Maha Kumbh, the world’s biggest gathering of humanity, is set to begin on Monday when an estimated 1.1 crore devotees will take the holy dip at Sangam on the occasion of Makar Sankranti. All arrangements seem to be in place except for one problem — there isn’t enough water in the Ganga for the mass ritual.

Experts at Allahabad University and UP Pollution Control Board said there’s just knee-deep water at Sangam and around three feet at the main bathing areas. The level in the post-monsoon season should be two-three metres above this, they said