Cleaning the Ganga

Govt should build on gains in recent years

If the status of aquatic biodiversity is any indication of the sanitary and biological health of a natural water body, then the river Ganga, once severely polluted, has begun to recover. A survey of the river’s main stream (without tributaries), conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India between 2017 and 2019, shows that 49 per cent of it now has “high biodiversity”, thanks to improved water quality. The sightings of aquatic fauna, including Gangetic dolphins and otters, which had become rare or nil in many stretches of the river, have now increased considerably. The population of Gangetic dolphins, which exceeded