Maharashtra: Most industrialised state is also home to most polluted rivers

One of India’s most industrialised states, Maharashtra, was the worst at keeping its rivers clean, accounting for 16% of the country’s polluted river stretches in five years to 2012, show government data.

With 49 of India’s 302 polluted sites, the state recorded the highest number of river stretches where industrial effluents were dumped between 2008 and 2012, according to the country’s Central Pollution Control Board, minister of state for environment Mahesh Sharma told the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) on April 6, 2018.

Effluents reduce the oxygen content of water bodies because