River of Life, River of Death: The Ganges and India's FutureIndia is killing the Ganges, and the Ganges in turn is killing India. The waterway that has nourished more people than any on earth for three millennia is now so polluted with sewage and toxic waste that it has become a menace to human and animal health. Victor Mallet traces the holy river from source to mouth, and from ancient times to the present day, to find that the battle to rescue what is arguably the world's most important river is far from lost. As one Hindu sage told the author in Rishikesh on the banks of the upper Ganges (known to Hindus as the goddess Ganga) - 'If Ganga dies, India dies. If Ganga thrives, India thrives. The lives of 500 million people is no small thing.' Drawing on four years of first-hand reporting and detailed historical and scientific research, Mallet delves into the religious, historical, and biological mysteries of the Ganges, and explains how Hindus can simultaneously revere and abuse their national river. Starting at the Himalayan glacier where the Ganges emerges pure and cold from an icy cave known as the Cow's Mouth and ending in the tiger-infested mangrove swamps of the Bay of Bengal, Mallet encounters everyone from the naked holy men who worship the river, to the engineers who divert its waters for irrigation, the scientists who study its bacteria, and Narendra Modi, the Hindu nationalist prime minister, who says he wants to save India's mother-river for posterity. Can they succeed in saving the river from catastrophe — or is it too late? |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 62
Page ix
... Ganges Storms and Sandbanks: Boats on the Ganges Trade Artery No More: Calcutta and Bengal xiii XV XX 23 39 45 63 74 96 II4 I36 I49 I6O I75 I83 I98 2O7 17. Mission Impossible? How to Clean the Ganges 18. Beautiful Contents.
... Ganges Storms and Sandbanks: Boats on the Ganges Trade Artery No More: Calcutta and Bengal xiii XV XX 23 39 45 63 74 96 II4 I36 I49 I6O I75 I83 I98 2O7 17. Mission Impossible? How to Clean the Ganges 18. Beautiful Contents.
Page x
The Ganges and India's Future Victor Mallet. 17. Mission Impossible? How to Clean the Ganges 18. Beautiful Forest: Where the Ganga Meets the Ocean Notes Bibliography Publisher's Acknowledgements Picture Acknowledgements Index 229 2S3 265 ...
The Ganges and India's Future Victor Mallet. 17. Mission Impossible? How to Clean the Ganges 18. Beautiful Forest: Where the Ganga Meets the Ocean Notes Bibliography Publisher's Acknowledgements Picture Acknowledgements Index 229 2S3 265 ...
Page xix
... Ganges is so important in its physical form of life-giving water and fertile ... Ganges in the Himalayan foothills and ends at the river's mouth in the Bay ... clean air and water of the upper Ganges, I relish the notion of reaching the ...
... Ganges is so important in its physical form of life-giving water and fertile ... Ganges in the Himalayan foothills and ends at the river's mouth in the Bay ... clean air and water of the upper Ganges, I relish the notion of reaching the ...
Page 7
The Ganges and India's Future Victor Mallet. about the Ganges itself in ... clean the Ganges and save it for future generations. More than two years on ... clean-ups in Europe and America have shown. The story starts high in the hills at ...
The Ganges and India's Future Victor Mallet. about the Ganges itself in ... clean the Ganges and save it for future generations. More than two years on ... clean-ups in Europe and America have shown. The story starts high in the hills at ...
Page 10
The Ganges and India's Future Victor Mallet. The legends of the Ganges—the goddess Ma Ganga or Mother Ganges ... clean as a mirror. A Bodhisattva of the eighth stage, having transformed himself into a Naga king by the power of his resolute ...
The Ganges and India's Future Victor Mallet. The legends of the Ganges—the goddess Ma Ganga or Mother Ganges ... clean as a mirror. A Bodhisattva of the eighth stage, having transformed himself into a Naga king by the power of his resolute ...
Contents
1 | |
8 | |
Holy Waters | 23 |
How to Build a Megacityand Save the Ganges | 39 |
Varanasi Indias Capital for a Day | 45 |
Varanasi Broken Promises | 63 |
Toxic River | 74 |
Superbug River | 96 |
A Bollywood Star Ganga on Film | 175 |
Exotic River Foreigners on the Ganges | 183 |
Storms and Sandbanks Boats on the Ganges | 198 |
Trade Artery No More Calcutta and Bengal | 207 |
Mission Impossible? How to Clean the Ganges | 229 |
Beautiful Forest Where Ganga Meets the Ocean | 253 |
Notes | 265 |
Bibliography | 296 |
Dolphins Crocodiles and Tigers | 114 |
People Pressure Why Population Growth Is Not a Dividend | 136 |
Water and Wells Why the Taps Run Dry | 149 |
Dams and Droughts Engineering the Ganges | 160 |
Publishers Acknowledgements | 302 |
Picture Acknowledgements | 303 |
Index | 305 |
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Common terms and phrases
Allahabad antibiotic resistance antibiotics Asia August bacteria Bangladesh banks bathe Bay of Bengal Bihar boats British Calcutta canal cent century Chambal cleaning the Ganges climate change culture dams Delhi delta dolphins downstream east effluent environmental Financial fish floods flow Ganga Ganges water Gangetic Gangotri Gaumukh gene gharials ghat glacier goddess groundwater Haridwar heavy metals Himalayas Hindu holy Hooghly human Indus industrial Interview irrigation Kanpur kilometres Kolkata Kolkata Port Trust Kumbh Mela live million Modi's monsoon mouth Mughal Muslim Narendra Modi north India official Pakistan Patna pilgrims pollution population port prime minister problem projects pumping religious resistance river sadhus Sagar Sanskrit Saraswati says September 2016 sewage treatment Shiva Singh Sinha stream Sunderbans tanneries temple Thames tigers tion told town toxic treatment plants tributaries Uma Bharti upper Ganges upstream Uttar Pradesh Varanasi Victor Mallet village waste waterways wildlife Xuanzang Yamuna