Living Entity

"The Ganges river, considered sacred by more than 1 billion Indians, has become the first non-human entity in India to be granted the same legal rights as people.A court in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand ordered on Monday that the Ganges and its main tributary, the Yamuna, be accorded the

A symbol of Indian spirituality as old as Jerusalem and Athens, the river goddess Ganga once flowed wild and free, ripping through the Indian landscape with vigor and might from the roaring icy waters in the Himalayas down its murky end in the Bay of Bengal. For more than seven years I documented the lives of the people who live along the river Ganges, witnessing first hand the devastating effects of climate change, industrialization and urbanization. It is evident in many ways the Ganges is now on the brink of a humanitarian crisis as an impending ecological disaster waits on the horizon.

Among the many forms of resistance thought by local people to preserve and renew ancestral traditions, food, flowers and other religious offerings are set afloat across the waters every day. Sadly it is a common belief among Hindu pilgrims that these waters are so pure and holy that it is exempt from any harm. Every year roughly 32000 corpses are cremated in Varanasi and around 200 tons of half burned flesh end up in the Ganges contaminating the waters and those who bathe in it. With the addition of rotting animal carcasses, a foaming layer of scum is often seen along some parts of the river. Complications of proper connections from toilets to drains manifest in the form of huge open sewers along the river as populations of riverside cities continue to boom. Feeble sewage treatment plants simply cannot process the amount of waste coming in causing untreated waste to flow freely adding to the toll of children who suffer and die from diarrhea, water-borne and enteric diseases everyday across the Ganges basin. Open-air defecation is a common sight. In some parts the water contains faecal coliform bacteria at half-a-million times the Indian recommended bathing limit. Mammoth hydroelectric projects like the Tehri Dam cause water shortages in surrounding villages. India's green revolution transformed barren and forested land into heavily irrigated areas increasing the exploitation of water resources, including the vast groundwater aquifers of the Ganges
basin. Fertilizers running off from fields seep in to the water heavily contaminating it. As leather factories of Kanpur grow in numbers, the city’s water treatment plants are unable to cope with the volume of chemical waste from tanneries, afflicting farmers using the water with rashes, boils and numbness in the limbs. Water availability in the Ganges basin is highly dependent on the monsoon. Dramatic changes in climate due to global warming alter the timing, intensity and duration of rainfall, significantly affecting the amount of water available. Salinity in the south of the river has lead to desertification in many areas in Bangladesh and India. The Ganges is already running dry in many places, and as weather patterns become irregular parts of the river simply cease to exist for periods of time, dramatically affecting the lives of people who depend on the river for their livelihoods and spiritual wellbeing.

In Hindu mythology the Ganges is considered a “Tirtha” which means a crossing point between heaven and earth. My fear is this bridge may crumble in our lifetime. In the face of climate change it appears we are only adding more logs to the incineration of this holy river goddess. I have traveled the entire length of the Ganges to date.This project aims to add fuel to the current discussion surrounding the fate of the Ganges at this historical junction where we have the power to shape not only physical but also spiritual geography of a nation.