Sugar and paper mills in Bihar and tanneries in West Bengal have been penalised by the Supreme Court for continuing to discharge untreated waste into the Ganga and its tributaries.

In the post monsoon months of September and October, the Ganga often rises to flood vast tracts of border land in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. As the flood waters recede, they leave behind new islands, which frequently become a subject of violent dispute.

Several government and voluntary agencies are involved in the onerous task of cleaning up the country's best known river.

Central Ganga Authority Ministry of Environment and Forests Paryavaran Bhavan CGO Complex Lodhi Road New Delhi 110 003 V Rajamani Chairman, Steering Committee Ministry of

A plan is on to restore the falling population of turtles in the Ganga to keep the waters clean.

While the government has launched GAP to purify the Ganga, individuals like Supreme Court advocate V C Mehta have also played an important part. Mehta has sought the intervention of the apex court to contain Ganga Pollution. According to him, his seven ye

Kanpur residents drank untreated water as the city's water works, supposedly, did not have the funds to buypurifiers.

WATER QUALITY CRITERIA Water class Criteria A Drinking water without treatment: Faecal coliforms: 50 MPN / 100 ml (max); DO: 5 mg/1

"The story of the Ganges, from her source to the sea, from old times to new, is the story of India"s civilisation ..." - Jawaharlal Nehru

IN MANY ways, the Ganga Action Programme is a very ambitious scheme. It aims to clean up one of the world"s longest rivers -- using sophisticated and expensive technologies. But the project

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