Ganga is a perennial river which originates as a stream called “Bhagirathi” from Gaumukh in the Gangotri glacier at 30 ° 55' N, 79 ° 7' E, some 4100 m above mean sea level. Ganga river basin is the largest among river basins in India and the fourth largest in the world, with a basin (catchment area) covering 8, 61,404 sq km.

It has a total length of 2,525 km, out of which 1,425 km is in Uttaranchal and UP, 475 km is in Bihar and 625 km is in West Bengal.

 

Already half a billion people live within the river basin, at an average density of over 500 per sq km, and this population is projected to increase to 

over one billion people by the year 2030. 

The Ganges plains were first settled by Aryans around 1200 BC and in subsequent 3,200 years of occupation, the landscape of the region has been completely transformed by generations of agriculturists and the more recent expansion of urban centres and industrial activities. 

 

The Ganga drains 9 states of India. Today, the 2,525 km long river supports 29 class I cities, 23 class II cities and 48 towns, plus thousands of villages.

 

Nearly all the sewage,  industrial effluent, runoff from chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture within the basin, and large quantities of solid waste, including thousands of animals’ carcasses and hundreds of human corpses are dumped in the river everyday. 

 

The inevitable result of this onslaught on the river’s capacity to receive and assimilate waste has been an erosion of river water quality, to the extent that, by 1970s, large stretches (over 600 km) of the river were virtually dead from an ecological point of view, and posed a considerable public health threat to the religious bathers using the river everyday.

 

The problem of river pollution is further compounded by the over-extraction and diversion of the river waters at various points (about 47 percent of the country's 

irrigated land is in the Ganga basin).

 

The situation is intolerable, primarily because it is a common practice for Indians to bathe in the ‘holy' waters of Ganga.

 

In addition, a large number of people living along the river use Ganga water for drinking and other household purposes.

 

Livelihoods of many people (e.g., fishermen, boatmen, priests etc.) are also linked with the condition of the river.