Himalayan Rafting

How does having a large population affect India’s environment in Delhi and the Himalayas?

I recently returned to Singapore from my Himalayan Rafting Trip in India. Before departing for my expedition I decided that whilst I was away I was going to observe how the River Ganga that we were on is affected by humans especially as India has such a large population. With India having the second largest population in the world with an estimated 1,281,935,911 people as of July 2017 (CIA world factbook), I was interested in how this affected the environment. The river runs 2,525 km from Gangotri Glacier to its delta (the largest in the world) in the Bay of Bengal.

We had our first camp for white water rafting on the beaches of the famous river, the river Ganga, in the remote area of Uttarakhand, north of a town called Rishikesh.The river was pristine and when talking to the founder of Snow Leopard Adventures, Ajeet Bajaj, he explained to me that the population that live in the remote area worship the river. The river Ganga is a very holy river to the Hindu religion and the water is said to cleanse you of your sins. We were fortunate to experience an evening ‘Aarti’ or prayer beside the river Ganga which is performed every morning and evening to worship the river. I also learnt that the holy water from the Ganga is used in prayer. Unfortunately, as you make your way down the sacred river it becomes more and more polluted. Ajeet explained that it was due to a few things; when you get nearer the more densely populated areas there is industrial effluent released into the river, not only this, but more people use the

river for washing clothes, bathing themselves and animals. However polluted it is though it is still considered holy. The industrial effluent released into the river is being monitored however with a large population there is high demand for products that create industrial waste in their manufacture, this is then released into the river as free and easy disposal. 

Whilst on the upper course of the river in remote areas I was able to see that it was definitely a lot cleaner than even slightly further down in Rishikesh. There was a big contrast to the environment in Delhi that we experienced towards the ends of our expedition. In Delhi, there was more litter on the streets and lot’s of vehicles in traffic creating air pollution. I was able to compare the remote less populated area of Uttarakhand to comparing Delhi the densely populated capital of India. I was able to witness how much of an impact that people have on the environment and understand why this happens. Hopefully, the upper course of the river will remain clean and relatively unpolluted. After returning and doing further research on the Ganga I have learnt that there is a National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG). They have programs such as the Namami Gange program whose mission is  “to accomplish the twin objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga.” (http://nmcg.nic.in/NamamiGanga.aspx)

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