Why Is Ganga So Pure?

You probably know about the purity associated with Ganga.

Have you wondered why?

Ganga is associated with spirituality. Ganga water has always been considered holy, with exceptional powers. It is the 'water of immortality'.

It is actually written in the Hindu religion texts, that one who takes a bath in Ganga gets rid of his impurities. Sounds kind of unreal, but let’s look at some scientific explanations.

Ganga or Ganges originates from Gangotri in Uttrakhand. Rather, Goumakh is the source of Bhagirathi, which majorly makes up Ganga. And at Gangotri, Bhagirathi combines with another stream of water to form Ganga. Basically, Gangotri Glacier melts and forms Ganga.

It finally joins Bay of Bengal, and the route undertaken by the river is as shown on the map.

It was said thousands of years ago, that Ganga was the purest river. Even science believes it now. Science has an explanation of the long-standing mystery of our holy river.

Experiments on Ganga's water of immortality

Earlier in 1896, British physician E Hanbury Hankin tested the Ganga water. He found that when Ganga water was mixed with normal water containing different microbes, the water cleaned itself and the bacteria existent, died in 3 hours. While in normal water, these bacteria pertained for 2 days. He proved the self-healing properties of Ganga.

Recently, a study was conducted by the Union Water Resources Ministry to identify properties of Ganga. NEERI team was selected for this task. Even Chandigarh based Institute of Microbial Technology did research on Ganga Water. They all found one thing.

In the Ganga, there is an excess of Bacteriophage- a virus that eats bacteria. It multiplies quickly to eradicate bacteria. Bacteriophages are much more specific than antibiotics and are involved in human medicine as well. They don’t harm the useful bacteria.

Bacteriophage

In some parts of Ganga, Bacteriophage was found close to 3 times the bacteria present in it. 1100 different kinds of bacteriophages were found in Ganga!

Also, Ganga water had 25 times more dissolved oxygen than any other river.

The upper stretch of Ganga, around the Himalayas, contain a lot of bacteriophages, which kills microbes and keeps our holy river clean.

Demystifying myths, it is the bacteriophage present in Ganga which keeps it clean. And for this reason, Ganga water strongly resists putrefaction or decay.

There is some truth in Religion, but not the correct explanation of it.

Religion coined different concepts around our Ganga.

Ganga water will not purify the bad deeds you have done but a bath in the waters will surely cleanse your body. The ashes thrown in the water may or may not achieve 'moksha' but will surely be purified because of bacteria killing properties.

Even when we consider it holy, we are destroying our Ganga, hundreds of crores of liter and garbage are thrown in Ganga every year.

But even after all this pollution, Ganga has remained pure. It does have self-healing properties. It truly is a holy river.