The Ghats of Buxar witness huge crowd of people every day. People worship, bath even drink the water of Ganga with the faith that it’s sacred. But rotten vegetables, animal corpses, sewage and other garbage are being dumped in the river every day. Recently human corpses were seen floating on the Ram Rekha Ghat of Buxar. In such situation how far will our faith go?

Famous for its spiritual places, also known as the city of Maharishi Vishwamitra, Ram Rekha Ghats and Shiv Mandir are the two most visited Ghats of Buxar. Their magnificent view, historical value and pure environment, but the Ganga flowing near these temples is not as pure as them.  The holiest river in India- the  Ganga has lost her sanctity because of humans.

The colour of the Ganga has turned to black and brownish because of the various pollutants and garbage dumped into it daily. People immerse their idols and worship materials in the river as part of rituals and thus pollute the river.

The worst part is that in the name of rituals people throw dead bodies in the river. Our reporter Nihal found as many as five dead bodies in the water along the banks of the Ganga at Ram Rekha Ghat in Buxar and people just ignored the corpses.

The condition of the Ghats shows that the municipal corporation in the city is non-existent and it seems that the Swatch Ganga Abhiyan (clean Ganga Campaign) is only on paper. People are washing their clothes, dishes and cattle in the river, bathing and throwing their garbage in it and nobody is there to stop them. People consider Ganga sacred and pure and some believe that doing such things does not affect its purity.

Ajay Prasad, a shopkeeper outside Ram Rekha Ghat says “Ganga is pure and it also makes everything thrown into it pure. No matter if it is garbage or corpses, all become pure. Every day I take bath in Ganga and that makes my mind and body calm and pure”.

Kali Narayan Das, a sadhu who sits near Buxar Ram Rekha Ghat said that he has been living near the Ghat for the past 30 years and the constant increase of pollution in Ganga is really shameful. “All the devotees who come here- take bath in Ganga , perform rituals of mundan (first shaving of child’s hair after birth) and worship- throws all the materials in the river and there is no objection. Clean Ganga campaign had only become a topic of politics and nothing more than that” he said.

People who live in slums near Ganga Ghats use its water to drink it, to prepare food from it and for other works due to this their health is being affected. Many waterborne diseases are affecting people health but both public and Municipal Corporation don’t seem to care and all the campaigns designed by the government for clean Ganga are only a whitewash.

Priyanka, based on report by Nihal Dutta

BMC 5th semester, St. Xavier’s College of Mgmt. & Tech.

  Bihar, Buxar, Ganga, naked truth, Sawatch Ganga Abhiyan, water pollution