How ‘alarming’ pollution in lower Ganges is impacting one of world’s richest mangrove forests

Pollution in lower stretches of the Ganges will have an adverse effect on the biodiversity of Sundarbans — one of the world’s richest mangrove forest ecosystems, scientists tell Namita Singh

Municipal waste being discharged in the Ganges near Dakshineswar in West Bengal, India (Punyasloke Bhadury)

Every year hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees take a dip in the holy Ganges river at the Hindu religious site of Dakshineswar in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.

But recent research by a group of scientists have thrown up alarming statistics about the quality of water at the site, with cascading effect on another important location close by — the Sundarbans — home to one of the world’s largest and richest mangrove forests.

Coordinated by microbial ecologist Dr Punyasloke Bhadury, a team of four researchers examined the health of a 65km-stretch of the Ganges in West Bengal.