The Ganges will also be dry
Recently, Chongqing, China has been upgraded to a level III emergency response to drought. In Jiangxi and Hunan, Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake "shrinked" by nearly 70% in one month. Among them, Poyang Lake set a record for the earliest dry season since records began in 1951. "It's so dry, so hot" makes the recent hot search list "unbearably hot and dry"; but even if there is no continuous high temperature and a lot of evaporation, in the faraway India - where the Ganges River still faces "I'm dry, you are free" situation. Edit: The bustling Ganges River in the morning Photography: GIULIO DI STURCO The Ganges River, the mother river of the Indian subcontinent, originates from the Gangotri Glacier (Gangotri) in the Himalayas, rushing for 2,500 kilometers, and finally flows into the humid Bay of Bengal. She is not only a river, but also an extension of the Hindu god Shiva; she not only carries the beliefs of hundreds of millions of people, but also nourishes the endless life of countless species around the river. Hindu devotees prepare to bathe in sacred river water. PHOTO: GIULIO DI STURCO Paul Salopek, National Geographic's most "walkable" contributor, wrote while trekking through India: "The oceans hold 97% of the Earth's water; the poles and glaciers lock up about 2 % of water; only 1% of liquid fresh water is available for humans to live on, but even that 1% we still waste a lot - the country in front of me, India, is exactly that.” Desert State India Rajasthan, women laboriously fetch precious water from a well. PHOTO: JOHN STANMEYER India, the second most populous country in the world, is home to more than 1.3 billion people. India, from the Greek "indos"; from the Persian "hind"; from the Sanskrit "sindhu" - meaning river. A country named after "water" actually has the most serious water resources problem in the world. PHOTO: PETE MCBRIDE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION All stories have a beginning, a development, and an end, and the Ganges is not eternal. Children play on the shrinking and dry Varuna, a tributary of the Ganges. PHOTO: RITESH SHUKLA, NURPHOTO/GETTY PHOTO: GIULIO DI STURCO Over the years, the flow of the Ganges has been decreasing. Environmentalists blame much of the blame on reckless mining. Combined with the over-pumping of groundwater, the water table in the floodplain dropped dramatically. There are more than 300 irrigation stations, hydroelectric dams and diversion weirs on the main stream of the Ganges; adding up all the tributaries brings the number closer to 1,000. A woman collects mustard leaves near an oil refinery on the banks of the Ganges River. Photo: GIULIO DI STURCO Smoke billows from chimneys near a dry tributary of the Ganges. Photo: GIULIO DI STURCO, dams and weirs, large and small, further divert the water of the Ganges; in addition, the climate is changing, and the monsoon rains that can replenish the water are becoming more and more unpredictable, and the Ganges is facing unprecedented complex difficulties. The current government is helpless. Nepalese police measure the length of a critically endangered Ganges dolphin killed by fishermen in Biratnagar. PHOTO: BHIM GHIMIRE, AFP/GETTY In Sultanganj, Bihar, the Baba Ajgavi Nath temple stands on the banks of the Ganges, a protected area , where the critically endangered Ganges dolphin lives. Photo: PAUL SALOPEK Fishermen in distress due to the drastic reduction of river water had to hunt and kill rare Ganges dolphins; newly excavated waterways destroyed the habitat of species such as Ganges dolphins; in addition, more sewage was rampant, with 1 billion liters of sewage per day Without treatment, it flows directly into the Ganges River. Factories dumping chemical waste along the Yamuna, the longest tributary of the Ganges, have formed "foam icebergs". PHOTO: GIULIO DI STURCO A pile of clothes from a hotel was piled up in the mud along the Yamuna River waiting to be washed in the river water. PHOTO: GIULIO DI STURCO In Patna, Bihar, a garbage dump reflects a widespread problem in the Ganges Basin: Insufficient garbage collection capacity has left plastic waste scattered everywhere, and monsoon rains can wash it into the river. PHOTOGRAPH BY SARA HYLTON In India's oldest city, Varanasi, waste and sewage treatment facilities are inadequate. As early as 7 years ago, the Indian government promised to spend 3 million US dollars to clean up the banks of the Varanasi River, and there is still no relief. PHOTOGRAPH BY PETE MCBRIDE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION When the Ganges River flows through India's Varanasi River, the amount of fecal bacteria is 3,000 times higher than safe bathing standards. Varanasi is one of Hinduism's holiest pilgrimage sites, where dozens of bodies are cremated every day. Varanasi is the only city in India that burns 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The city is so sacred that many Indians want to come here for cremation. PHOTO: PETE MCBRIDE Although plastic waste and industrial waste water have added an unbearably heavy burden to this sacred river, the most serious threat facing the Ganges right now is water scarcity – the Ganges is running dry. A tributary of the Ganges near Haridwar, India, dries up during the hot season. Photo: GIULIO DI STURCO Das Agrawal, leader of the Ganges environmental movement, once launched a Gandhi-style hunger strike to protest the inaction of several governments. Agrawal wrote several impassioned letters of protest to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, forcing the government to introduce relevant protection measures. In his letter, he said he would go on a hunger strike to death if the government did not come forward to resolve the crisis. Unfortunately, all these letters were lost. Agrawal tragically passed away after a 111-day hunger strike. A funeral procession is on its way to the Ganges in Bihar state. Locals believe that the closer one is to the river, the quicker one will realize and release the endless cycle of life and death. In Bagalpur, India, fisherman Devi shows us her wares: some fish that are too small - "We used to catch fish that were longer than an arm, and now we are lucky to find a fish that is longer than a finger. ." Chemicals spilled from a tannery in Kanpur, India, and poured into the Ganges River. Photo: GIULIO DI STURCODEvi has been a fisherman for more than 30 years. She knows that the "small fish dregs" caught now are not enough to eat and are only suitable for "watching" in a fish tank. "Our rivers are completely dry, our fish will never come back, and we don't even expect them to come back." Devi shrugged tiredly and helplessly. The family in the picture has been fishing in the Ganges for more than 50 years. Their nets used to be made of cotton, but now they are made of blue nylon, which is also a type of plastic. PHOTO: SARA HYLTON The Ganges River is one of the largest inland fishing grounds in the world, and nylon nets are widely used by fishermen and are frequently changed. Discarded nylon fishing nets entangle turtles, otters and the endangered Ganges dolphin; over time, they disintegrate into microplastics. Photo: SARA HYLTON India (India) is a country named after "water" in Sanskrit. In recent years, 70% of India's freshwater resources have been polluted. About 600 million people live in a state of polluted water; 21 major Indian cities are about to run out of groundwater; (including New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, etc.) It is estimated that by 2030, 40% of the country's population will not have access to sufficient drinking water water. ※The data comes from the National Research Institute of India (NITI Aayog) if you read this article