Ganga world's second most polluted river, Modi's Varanasi tops microplastics pollution

By Rajiv Shah
Will the new report by well-known elite NGO Toxics Link create a ripple in the powerful corridors of Delhi? Titled “Quantitative analysis of microplastics along River Ganga”, forwarded to Counterview, doesn’t just say that Ganga is the second most polluted river in the world, next only to Yangtze (China). It goes ahead to do a comparison of microplastics pollution in three cities shows Varanasi – the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi – is more polluted compared to Kanpur and Haridwar.
Referring to a study in “Nature Communications”, the The Toxics link report says, “The study estimated that between 1.15 and 2.41 million tonnes of plastic waste currently enters the ocean every year from rivers. Globally 74% of marine pollution is contributed by the top 20 polluting rivers, mostly Asian rivers. The Ganga is the 2nd most polluted river....”
The report adds, “According to the study, the Ganga is the second largest contributing catchment with an annual discharge of 0.12 million tonnes of plastic. It has also observed that the river’s midpoint input estimates peak in August (wet season) with 44,500 tonnes while the river discharges <150 tonnes per month between December and March (dry season).”

The report says, the 2,525 km long Ganges contributes “315 tonnes of plastic waste per day, the equivalent of 79 elephants”, regretting – indeed without referring to Modi’s big talk that “It's my destiny to serve Maa Ganga” – that “despite campaigns for cleanliness, the country has not been able to control the massive proliferation of plastics along the Ganga.”
Coming to microplastics, the report says, spot samples in the three cities “indicated higher microplastic levels in the samples collected from Kanpur and Varanasi in comparison to Haridwar”, underlining, “Among the three cities, Varanasi showed the maximum load of microplastics in the Ganga waters as compared to the other two cities.”
Pointing out that this may be due to “cumulative downstream pollution as well as industry and human activities”, the report says, “Assi Ghat in Varanasi had the maximum abundance of microplastics, which may be due to the drainage of sewage and industrial effluents directly into the Ganga.”

The report underlines, “The concern of microplastic pollution in the Ganga is critical as the water from the river is used for drinking and irrigation purposes quite extensively. An increased abundance of microplastics in a river increases the potential harm that it can cause to organisms and humans. After ingestion, microplastics cause toxicity through several pathways and mechanisms.”
Pointing out that the “polymeric compounds and additives such as copper ions used in the production of plastics are toxic”, the report adds, “More importantly, microplastics absorb various toxins in waters (including harmful chemicals) that are first absorbed onto microplastics, and subsequently may desorb inside a host organism.”
At each of the three cities, Toxics Link experts collected a set of five surface water samples with a focus on sampling areas which were heavily polluted with any wastewater treatment plant along the river.

Especially referring to Varanasi, the report says, “The number of microplastics detected in surface water of river Ganga in Varanasi was (2.42±0.405 MPs/m3 )... Assi Ghat showed the maximum abundance of microplastics as it is the most popular ghat in Varanasi and is one of the very few ghats that is linked with the city through a wide street.”

“Additionally”, the report says, “One sewage outlet was observed draining the wastewater and sewage directly into the Ganga which may affect the microplastics concentration and abundance in and around the sampling site. The second most polluted ghat was Kedareshwer ghat followed by Dasaswamedha and Sheetala ghat.”
As for Kanpur, the number of microplastics detected in the surface water samples of river Ganga was 2.16±0.500 Mps/m3, “slightly low concentration of microplastics was found in this region as compared to Varanasi”, the report says, adding, “Haridwar resulted in the lowest number of MPs/m3 (1.30±0.518) as compared to Varanasi and Kanpur.”

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

India’s green energy push faces talent crunch amidst record growth at 16% CAGR

By Jag Jivan* A new study by a top consulting firm has found that India’s cleantech sector is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and rising compensation costs .

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Beyond sattvik: Purity, caste and the politics of the Indian kitchen

By Rajiv Shah A few week ago, I was forwarded an article that appeared in the British weekly The Economist . Titled “Caste and cuisine: From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s ‘untouchable’ cooking”, it took me back to what I had blogged about what was called a “ sattvik food festival”, an annual event organised by former Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta.

Search This Blog