The relevance of Ganga

The Govt seems fixated on not working on cleaning up the Ganga but on how to pollute it more! The first and foremost plan has to be the massive cleaning on our rivers yet, we continue to hear more and more news about how much more the rivers can be developed – first as a means of mass transport and then as a tourist attraction. But there has been a single word on the process of clean-up.

The latest is – sustainable tourism for the Ganga river. And this laughably includes floating hotels, river cruises between Haridwar and Hooghly - where visitors can comfortably stay the night with modern facilities.  How can this be sustainable? The hotels on river itself is a pollutant and cruises – unless it is via boats which does not run on fuel, everything else will only pollute further.

On the other hand, what does sound good is the idea of using technology to boost ‘religious’ or rather spiritual tourism. Using apps, information will be given on religious ceremonies taking place on the banks of the river, including cremation, bathing, hair-shedding, not only in Indian languages like Bengali, Hindi and Gujarati but also in foreign languages. It is also looking at starting a ‘light and sound’ show where tourists will be taken on a barge across the ghats and the history of each ghat will be narrated with a sound and light effect.  Now that sounds really good – people from India and all over the world comes to the Ganges to feel the divinity and the Govt to look at ways to enhance that rather than make these holy spots into entertainment zones. Let us have at least some places in India which preserve the unique culture of worshiping the river!