NOW, A ~50,000 FINE ON DUMPING WASTE IN GANGA

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal asked the government on Thursday to impose a fine of ~50,000 on people dumping waste in the Ganga, the holiest river for millions of Hindus but one of the most polluted in the country.

The fine covers the river’s tributaries as well. India’s top environmental court also banned all constructions within 100 metres of the river’s banks along the stretch from Haridwar in Uttarakhand to Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, marking the area as a “no-development zone.”

The tribunal announced a slew of measures in a 543-page judgment on the river that emerges from the Himalayas before draining into the Bay of Bengal.

The NGT’s steps are likely to reduce pollution in the river by 27%. The judgment deals with the 500km stretch from Haridwar to Unnao, the most polluted tract in which industrial effluents and urban sewage flows into the river through 86 drains.

The tribunal said the drains must be dredged periodically.

It also asked the Uttarakhand and UP governments to issue guidelines for religious and other activities performed on the ghats of the river. “We will do our best to book the culprits. Keeping an eye on everyone coming to the holy city is a tricky business but we will ensure the NGT order’s compliance,” Haridwar mayor Manoj Garg said.

Decades of government efforts and crores of rupees to clean the river have changed little on the ground. Towering mounds of rubbish line the riverbanks, the water turns foamy and dark near the industrial hub of Kanpur, where the filthy red run-off from tanneries is dumped in the river, and half-burnt corpses float near the ghats of Varanasi.