Saving River Ganga at Patna

Cleanliness at Ghats (River Banks)

There are various river Ghats in Patna. Patna, being an ancient historical
city has many of its historical aspects attached to this holy river. The rural
people living outside the city have a habit of bathing in the river. The Bihar
Regiment is also located in Danapur the banks of this river.
The washer men and the poor people living near the banks of the river are
directly dependent on the river for bathing and sanitation purposes. All
the detergents, the waste matter go directly into the river.
All the residential colonies throw their waste near the banks of the rivers.
The Hindu families (even I am a Hindu, but I consider it illogical) throw the
holy waste (old calendars with pictures of god, old earthen lamps, old
idols) directly into the river because its considered holy.
The Muslims living near the Ghats have hens and goats s pet animals and
all their waste is directly thrown into the river banks.
The milk men living near the river banks directly throw the cow dung into
the river, or transfer it into the drain which is again sent into the river by the
municipality.
The whole river belt near Patna is a protected site for Gangetic Dolphins
(An endangered species). In my childhood, we could see them playing in
the rivers. But today, we cant see any of them. Either they died, or just
disappeared because of the pollution.
The idol visarjan done during Dussehra is directly done into the river, which
further pollutes the river.
Several municipalities in Patna handling the urban and rural waste transfer
their sewage waste directly into the river without any processing of the
waste.

Change in Physical Geography of River

The city of Patna is at the confluence of three rivers.
a. River Son
b. River Ganga
c. River Punpun
Upstream from this River Gandak meets at Hajipur/Sonpur.
The River Ganga divides the state into two parts, and in this process, its
stream itself gets divided into two parts.
The southern side of the River Ganga is heavily embanked to stop the
floods from entering into the city. The northern side of the river, a simple
plain land faces the wrath of the floods. Since the river doesnt flows into
full flow because of the sudden change in its direction and its own

splitting; all the silt gets deposited into the river beds which form small
islands for some months during summer season. These small islands are
inhabited and a safe place for illegal activities. Also, since the lands the
river has covered are of private properties, Heavy disputes between the
village crop up as soon as the river bed starts giving up small chunks of
islands.
The local police is unable to handle these situations. Also, with the nexus
of local authorities, small goons thriving on extortion from local businesses
and auto drivers settle down their businesses in these islands.

Development Plans are just Announcements

Some of the beautification plans announced, till now it seems have
been a waste of time. From the free express way, acting as a bypass
to the traffic struck city, to the marine drive like infrastructure to
beautify the city, all have just been announcements. If these plans are
done successfully, the beautification and the tourist inflow will
automatically start increasing.

Suggestions

Develop religiously acceptable places near the rivers so as to accept the

worship materials thrown into the river. This will stop people throwing the idols,
calendars, metal objects into the river.
Develop proper infrastructure and provide people jobs to act as vigilantes to see
that the river is not getting polluted into their area. They should have sufficient
power to interfere in any matters leading to pollution of the river.
Security to be beefed up on Ghats, Always ready NDRF teams so as to stop
drowning deaths into the river. The river drowning creates a huge stir in the city
where only two important roads are leading to the city and any drowning
incident leads to a blockage, severe traffic jams and property damages.
CCTV cameras on ghats and small bridges leading to the islands so as to monitor
any crime happening in the river.
Instructing municipalities to treat the waste before discharging the flow into the
river.
Heavy fines to those caught throwing the waste into the rivers. Officers catching
these people to be suitably rewarded, so as to stop corruption.
De-silting of River beds so as to bring the river back into its previous channel. The
lands which used to be river beds are now islands. The river in the main city of

Patna has shifted its course some 4-5 kilometres away, and only comes into its old
channel during monsoons.
Moral instructions to people so as to help in the beautification of the river banks.

I am attaching some pictures which will show the current plight of the river at Patna.
These images are authentic and have been taken by myself.
IMAGES
1. The River at its Grandeur in monsoon.(Time - Sunset)

2.

The River during Chatth Puja. This is the crowd scenario even after the danger
sign board.

3. The Danger Sign Board warning the people. The muddy river bank sometimes
capsizes and many people drown. The river has seen many deaths during this
festival, mainly due to the marshy river bank which does not dry up after the
monsoon. This can be avoided by building concrete floor into the river upto a
certain point. The point can act as a boundary for those venturing deep into the
river. The boundary can be netted so as to stop the sediments from covering the
concrete floor during the monsoon.

4. The River bank had to be cordoned where it capsized. Also depicting the state of
the river ghat during one of the most important festivals of the state.

5. The strong river embankments of Patna push the river to flow in the north
unprotected side of the state. The river starts depositing silt and small islands like
the one shown in this picture are formed. It also leads to splitting up of the river
into streams.

6. Finally one of the pictures during Visarjan. This is the first idol of the year being
immersed into the river and this much waste has been discarded. Almost 1000
idols are washed away into the rivers in Dussehra in this city alone.

Save our River. Give chance to us, the unemployed technical graduates (with proper salary) to
do this. And we shall show the true power of youth. Jai Hind.
Report preapred by:Atul Kumar.
Email atul.kumar.gpt@gmail.com