Ganga river is considered sacred by Hindus. You will come across legion of devotinal songs dedicated to Ganga and the name itself fills Hindu hearts with a sense of reverence, pride and joy. In this blind devotion to Ganga, we have ignored the fact that holy Ganga has degenrated into an impure and dirty river. As Professor Veer Bhadra Mishra has said: ” Science and technology are one bank of the river, and religion,tradition and faith are the other bank of the river. Both the banks need to be firm, and only then can the river maintain the flow.” Prof Mishra- former professor of Hydraulic engineering and former Head of the Civil Engineering Department at the Banaras Hindu University- is the founding president of the Sankat Mochan Foundation.
It is indeed a sad commentary on our current state of affairs that we have willfully let Ganga become more and more polluted, given our scientific wisdom! It sounds that there have been acts of omission and commission on part of beaurocracy and thus the current mess!
There is no point in crying hoarse about the glories of our past civilizations and religion if we can not keep pace with the currents of modern times. The purification of Ganga needs a scientific approach. At the same time, it reminds us of the havoc we are playing with mother nature!
The following link is a small story on Dr Mishra’s project.