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Indian Hindu pilgrims walk on a pontoon bridge before dawn at Sangam, the confluence of rivers Ganges, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswati during Magh Mela, a festival that attracts millions of pilgrims every year, in Prayagraj, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020. In the run-up to the bathing festivals, extra water is released upstream and tanneries are temporarily closed to temporarily clean up the waters of the Ganges. But pollution officials say that it is unsafe to bathe in the Ganges anywhere near Prayagraj. To Hindus, however, the river remains pure in a religious sense. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
ALONG THE GANGES, India (AP) - More than 2,000 years ago, a powerful king built a fort on the banks of India's holiest river, on the fringes of what is now a vast industrial city.
Today, little of the ancient construction remains, except for mounds of rubble that tannery workers pick through for bricks to build shanties atop what was once the fortress of the great King Yayati.
And Kanpur, where Yayati built his fort, is a city known for its leather tanneries and the relentless pollution they pump into the Ganges River.
For more than 1,700 miles, from the Gangotri Glacier in the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, the Ganges flows across the plains like a timeline of India's past, nourishing an extraordinary wealth of life. It has seen empires rise and fall. It has seen too many wars, countless kings, British colonials, independence and the rise of Hindu nationalism as a political movement.
In India, the Ganges is far more than just a river. It is religion, industry, farming and politics. It is a source of water for millions of people, and an immense septic system that endures millions of gallons of raw sewage.
A crowd gathers for a prayer ceremony dedicated to the river Ganges in Varanasi, one of the Hinduism's holiest cities, India, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019. For millions of Hindus, Varanasi is a place of pilgrimage and anyone who dies in the city or is cremated on its ghats is believed to attain salvation and freed from the cycle of birth and death. Some of the world's largest religious congregations are marked in Varanasi, a city along the River Ganges, also known as one of the oldest continuously inhabited in the world. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
To Hindus, the Ganges is "Ganga Ma" - Mother Ganges - and a center of spiritual life for more than a billion people. Every year, millions of Hindus make pilgrimages to the temples and shrines along its shores. To drink from it is auspicious. For many Hindus, life is incomplete without bathing in it at least once in their lifetime, to wash away theirs sins.
But all is not well with the Ganges.
Pollution has left large sections of it dangerous to drink. Criminal gangs illegally mine sand from its banks to feed India's relentless appetite for concrete. Hydroelectric dams along the river's tributaries, needed to power India's growing economy, have infuriated some Hindus, who say the sanctity of the river has been compromised.
Chemical foam caused by industrial and domestic pollution is seen flowing towards a figurine stuck in the shallow waters of Yamuna river in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2019. Despite the river being accorded the status of a living human entity by an Indian court, untreated sewage and industrial pollutants have turned it into one of the most polluted rivers in the world. The river Yamuna is one of the major tributaries of the Ganges. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Mouni Baba, a Hindu holy man, fetches water from a stream at the feet of Mount Shivling in Tapovan, at an altitude of 4500 meters in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, Friday, May 10, 2019. Mouni Baba, on a silent vow, has been meditating in Tapovan for years, even during the long months when winter makes the place inaccessible. Tapovan is located just above Gangotri glacier, which is one of the primary sources of water for the Ganges. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
And over the past 40-some years, the Gangotri Glacier - source of almost half the Ganges' water -has been receding at an increasingly frightening pace, now losing about 22 meters (yards) per year.
For millennia, the Gangotri's glacial melt water has ensured the arid plains get enough water, even during the driest months. The rest comes from Himalayan tributaries that flow from the colossal chain of mountains.
As the Ganges flows across the plains, its once clean and mineral-rich water begins collecting the toxic waste from the millions of people who depend on it, becoming one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Millions of liters (gallons) of sewage, along with heavy metals, agricultural pesticides, human bodies and animal carcasses, are dumped into the Ganges every day.
At times, officials try to fix things but vast stretches of it remain dangerously unhealthy.
Still, to Hindus, the river remains religiously pure.
Every year, tens of thousands of Hindus bring the bodies of their loved ones to be cremated at the Ganges, in the city of Varanasi. A Hindu who dies in the city, or is cremated alongside it, is also freed from that cycle of birth and death.
Funeral pyres burn at Manikarnika Ghat, one of the oldest and most sacred place for Hindus to be cremated, on the banks of river Ganges in Varanasi, India, Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. For millions of Hindus, Varanasi is a place of pilgrimage and anyone who dies in the city or is cremated on its ghats is believed to attain salvation and freed from the cycle of birth and death. Tens of thousands of corpses are cremated in the city each year, leaving half-burnt flesh, dead bodies and ash floating in the Ganges. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
After Varanasi, the Ganges continues its eastward journey through endless farmland as it nears the coast, eventually splitting off into ever-smaller rivers in the great wilderness of her delta. The biggest river, the Hooghly, heads south towards the sea, passing through Kolkata, the largest city in eastern India. Once the capital of the British raj, known as Calcutta, today the seething metropolis is home to nearly 15 million people.
Eventually, its waters spill into the Bay of Bengal.
Up near the Gangotri glacier, a genial Hindu holy man who goes by the name Mouni Baba and spends much of his life in silent meditation sees all of mankind reflected in the river.
"Human existence is like this ice," he said. "It melts and becomes water and then merges into a stream. The stream goes into a tributary which flows into a river and then it all ends up in an ocean. Some (rivers) remain pure while others collect dirt along the way. Some (people) help mankind and some become the cause of its devastation."
A Hindu pilgrim takes a holy dip on Makar Sankranti festival on Sagar Island, an island in the Ganges delta, in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020. For more than 1,700 miles, stretching from the Gangotri Glacier in the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, the Ganges flows across the plains like a timeline of India's past, nourishing an extraordinary wealth of life. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
A worker who helps cremate bodies sits by the body of an elderly man, wrapped and weighed down by a large rock, before throwing the body into the river Ganges as per his final wish, on the banks of river Ganges in Varanasi, India, Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. For millions of Hindus, Varanasi is a place of pilgrimage and anyone who dies in the city or is cremated on its ghats is believed to attain salvation and freed from the cycle of birth and death. Tens of thousands of corpses are cremated in the city each year, leaving half-burnt flesh, dead bodies and ash floating in the Ganges. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
An elderly Hindu woman sits in solitude inside an ashram meant for those who come to die and attain salvation in Varanasi, one of Hinduism's holiest cities on the banks of river Ganges, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. For millions of Hindus, Varanasi is a place of pilgrimage and anyone who dies in the city or is cremated on its ghats is believed to attain salvation and freed from the cycle of birth and death. This has, for ages, motivated devout Hindus to make the pilgrimage to Varanasi in their final days. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Hindu women walk on silt, deposited by monsoon floods, along the banks of the river Ganges to perform daily morning rituals in Varanasi, one of the Hinduism's holiest cities, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. For millions of Hindus, Varanasi is a place of pilgrimage and anyone who dies in the city or is cremated on its ghats is believed to attain salvation and freed from the cycle of birth and death. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
The Milky Way glows above the 6856 meters tall Bhagirathi peaks as seen from Tapovan, at an altitude of 4500 meters in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, Friday, May 10, 2019. Bhagirathi peaks feed the Gangotri Glacier, one of the origins of the river Ganges, whose glacial melt water has ensured the arid plains get enough water, even during the driest months. For more than 1,700 miles, from the Gangotri Glacier in the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, the Ganges flows across the plains like a timeline of India's past, nourishing an extraordinary wealth of life. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
A Hindu holy man meditates near Gaumukh, a snout of the Gangotri Glacier at an altitude of 4000 meters in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, Saturday, May 11, 2019. Gaumukh, which literally means head of a cow, is rapidly moving backward as Gangotri Glacier has receded considerably for the last few centuries. Research has shown that Gaumukh has retreated around three kilometers in two centuries. The Gangotri glacier is one of the main sources of the River Ganges. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Tourist guide Suresh Panwar navigates icy rocks as he descends a steep mountain ridge in the backdrop of the Bhagirathi peaks and the huge expanse of the Gangotri glacier at an altitude of 4500 meters in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, Saturday, May 11, 2019. Bhagirathi peaks feed the Gangotri Glacier which is one of the primary sources of water for the Ganges. This glacier has provided enough water to the arid plains it flows through, even during the driest months. Available data shows that Gangotri Glacier is receding at a frightening pace. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
School girls walk along a road overlooking Tehri Dam in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, Monday, May 13, 2019. The Tehri Dam built on the Bhagirathi river is India's highest dam and supplies power and water to numerous Indian towns and cities. The Bhagirathi river is one of the two sources that form the River Ganges, the other being the river Alaknanda. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
The confluence of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers, which is officially accepted as the start of the River Ganges, is illuminated at twilight in the town of Devprayag, in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, Monday, May 13, 2019. To Hindus, the Ganges is "Ganga Ma," or Mother Ganges, and millions of Hindus make pilgrimages to the temples and shrines along its shores every year. To drink from it is auspicious. For many Hindus, life is incomplete without bathing in it at least once in their lifetime, washing away their sins. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
A man carries a bucket of water while people wash utensils, brush their teeth and bathe in the polluted waters of the river Hooghly, a distributary of the river Ganges and known as Ganga by locals, in the backdrop of the landmark Howrah Bridge in Kolkata, in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, Friday, October 11, 2019. Once the capital of the British raj, today the seething metropolis is home to nearly 15 million people. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Indian Hindu devotees prepare to immerse an idol of goddess Durga in the river Hooghly, a distributary of the river Ganges, in Kolkata in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019. Hundreds of thousands of idols are immersed into the Ganges and other rivers across the country on Durga Puja festival, causing serious concerns of environmental pollution. The Hooghly is also known as the Ganga river by locals. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
A fisherman boat moves past a floating hotel on the river Hooghly, a distributary of the river Ganges, in Kolkata, in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. Once the capital of the British raj, today the seething metropolis is home to nearly 15 million people. The Hooghly is also known as the Ganga by locals. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
People prepare to cremate the body of a Hindu woman on the banks of the river Ganges on the outskirts of Varanasi, one of the Hinduism's holiest cities, India, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019. For millions of Hindus, Varanasi is a place of pilgrimage and anyone who dies in the city or is cremated on its ghats is believed to attain salvation and freed from the cycle of birth and death. Tens of thousands of corpses are cremated in the city each year, leaving half-burnt flesh, dead bodies and ash floating in the Ganges. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Women wash their household items by a drainage flowing into the river Ganges in Varanasi, one of the Hinduism's holiest cities, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. For millions of Hindus, Varanasi is a place of pilgrimage and anyone who dies in the city or is cremated on its ghats is believed to attain salvation and freed from the cycle of birth and death. Tens of thousands of corpses are cremated in the city each year, leaving half-burnt flesh, dead bodies and ash floating in the Ganges. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Smoke rises from chimneys of leather tanneries in Kanpur, an industrial city on the banks of the river Ganges, India, Tuesday, June 23, 2020. Kanpur city produces an estimated 450 million liters of municipal sewage and industrial effluent daily, much of which flowed directly into the Ganges until recently. Today that number is lower, though it's not clear by how much, after a Ganges cleanup project closed some drains and diverted industrial pollution to treatment plants. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Devotees take ritualistic dips alongside elephants at the confluence of river Ganges and river Gandak to mark the beginning of the centuries old Sonpur mela, the largest cattle fair in Asia, in the Indian state of Bihar, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019. Sonpur was once a place along the Ganges where powerful beasts like elephants were traded in large numbers. The number of elephants seen at the fair reduced drastically after a ban on their sale citing the Wildlife Protection Act. Only a handful are now brought by the administration to the festival in order to keep the Hindu tradition alive and also to add value to the fair as a tourist attraction. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Hindu mourners wait for the cremation of their loved ones at the flooded Manikarnika Ghat, one of the oldest and most sacred places for Hindus to be cremated, on the banks of river Ganges in Varanasi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. As the mighty Ganges River overflows following heavy monsoon rains, large parts of the Hindu holy town of Varanasi were submerged by floodwaters, forcing thousands of cremations to happen on rooftops and narrow alleyways. For millions of Hindus, Varanasi is a place of pilgrimage and anyone who dies in the city or is cremated on its ghats is believed to attain salvation and freed from the cycle of birth and death. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
A dog walks on a beach which was once a village on Sagar Island, one of the islands that make up the Sundarbans, a low-lying delta region of about 200 islands in the Bay of Bengal, India, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020. The Sundarbans and its vast mangrove forests, a UNESCO world heritage site, have seen a dramatic rise in sea levels. A 2013 study by the Zoological Society of London measured the Sundarbans coastline retreating at about 200 meters (650 feet) a year. The Geological Survey of India says at least 210 square kilometers (81 square miles) of coastline on the Indian side has eroded in the last few decades. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
An Indian Hindu family walks on the shallow banks of the Yamuna river, covered with chemical foam caused by industrial and domestic pollution, during Chhath Puja festival in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2019. Despite the river being accorded the status of a living human entity by an Indian court, untreated sewage and industrial pollutants have turned it into one of the most polluted rivers in the world. The river Yamuna is one of the major tributaries of the Ganges. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
A Hindu pilgrim is stranded on a mobile toilet after high tide submerged the camping area for pilgrims on the eve of Makar Sankranti festival on Sagar Island, an island lying in the Ganges delta, India, Monday, Jan. 13, 2020. Sagar and many other small islands which are part of the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, have seen a dramatic rise in sea levels due to climate change. The highest point in the Sundarbans is around 3 meters (9.8 feet) and the mean elevation is less than a meter above sea level. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
People wait for their turn to cremate a body as piles of logs arrive on boats at Manikarnika Ghat, one of the oldest and most sacred place for Hindus to be cremated, on the banks of river Ganges in Varanasi, India, Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. For millions of Hindus, Varanasi is a place of pilgrimage and anyone who dies in the city or is cremated on its ghats is believed to attain salvation and freed from the cycle of birth and death. Tens of thousands of corpses are cremated in the city each year, leaving half-burnt flesh, dead bodies and ash floating in the Ganges. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Hindu pilgrims arrive to takes holy dips before sunrise during Makar Sankranti festival on Sagar Island, an island in the Ganges delta, India, Monday, Jan. 13, 2020. Sagar and many other small islands which are part of the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, have seen a dramatic rise in sea levels due to climate change. The highest point in the Sundarbans is around 3 meters (9.8 feet) and the mean elevation is less than a meter above sea level. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
An Indian worker drinks water as processed rawhide are laid to dry at a tannery in Kanpur, an industrial city on the banks of the river Ganges known for its leather tanneries and relentless pollution, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, India, Wednesday, June 24, 2020. Kanpur city produces an estimated 450 million liters of municipal sewage and industrial effluent daily, much of which flowed directly into the Ganges until recently. Today that number is lower, though it's not clear by how much, after a Ganges cleanup project closed some drains and diverted industrial pollution to treatment plants. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Hindu pilgrims spend the night huddled together after being forced by high tide to flee from their camps on the eve of Makar Sankranti festival on Sagar Island, an island in the Ganges delta, in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020. Sagar and many other small islands which are part of the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, have seen a dramatic rise in sea levels due to climate change. The highest point in the Sundarbans is around 3 meters (9.8 feet) and the mean elevation is less than a meter above sea level. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
An Indian fisherman wades through shallow waters to reach the banks of the river Ganges after sundown in Bhagalpur in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2019. For more than 1,700 miles, stretching from the Gangotri Glacier in the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, the Ganges flows across the plains like a timeline of India's past, nourishing an extraordinary wealth of life. It has seen empires rise and fall. It has seen too many wars, countless kings, British colonials, independence and the rise of Hindu nationalism as a political movement. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
