[This was in response to a report printed in TIME July 19, about the pollution level in India 's holiest river Ganga (also called the Ganges by the West.) There is enormous amount of pollution in the other holy river, Yamuna, also. The government has done nothing to clean-up the rivers of India and the industries have not stopped polluting the sources of water that have sustained life for thousands of years. With the amount of daily pollution in the Ganga and Yamuna it's difficult to stop these rivers from a tragic death if nothing is urgently and effectively done about it.]

Kudos to Jyoti Thottam for the excellent report, and tell-tale photos on India 's legendary river Ganga, or the Ganges . The river is a part of India 's history, religion, culture, literature, body and soul from times immemorial. Sadly, politics, economics and bureaucracy have conspired to bring the holy river to the brink of death. Thottam has covered the situation from several angles that should serve as a stern warning and also to open avenues for giving life to the revered river.

Ganga is facing assault from greedy business people eager to make the maximum profit, politicians interested in making money and ensuring victory in the next elections, and the bureaucracy concerned with their jobs, promotion and retirement benefits.

Nobody has time to devote for proper, effective and long-term water management of India 's rivers. The irony is that India suffers from both scarcity and glut of water. More than a quarter century back the government sanctioned $10 million for clean-up of Ganga . The money must have been pocketed by those entrusted with the job as there was no visible improvement anywhere. Instead, Ganga lost its purity and now is on the brink of death.

There are hundreds of hotels, industries, and other polluting ventures all along the Ganga and the cities on its banks also contribute to its decay by sending all the filth to it. One can see dead animals even at the famous ghats of Ganga in Varanasi where men and women also bath to wash off their sins.

Millions bath in the river daily and use all kinds of soaps and other washing material that goes to pollute the river. Industrial waste is routinely thrown in the Ganga - and Yamuna - and the authorities have done precious little to monitor and control, regulate and curb this practice. Silting has caused the level to rise so that the river is unable to take extra water during the season when the snows melt and there is plenty of water flowing from the Himalayas .

In addition, the top soil, fertile soil is washed away to the sea before causing floods in the region. India experiences floods every year in Ganga, Yamuna, Brahmaputra , Kosi and many other rivers that devastate vast lands and destroy crops, uproot homes and drown people and animals and result in loss of billions of rupees.

Decades back the then Minister for Irrigation and Power, Dr. K.L. Rao, and an engineer himself had suggested ‘ Garland Canal ' (a network of all the rivers connected with each other) for proper management of water resources. That would have formed a beautiful and absolutely foolproof system to prevent droughts that occur frequently in some parts of India . That would also have irrigated vast stretches of land that otherwise lies waste.

Another Minister in the seventies had plans for raising a Land Army, initially of 100,000 retired veterans to clean-up and deepen all the rivers and plant trees all along. That Army would add 100,000 retired veterans of the Army, Air Force and Navy (who would join voluntary with the same pay and benefits as serving military personnel) and the third year the first batch could retire. That would have given a kind of extension to able bodied military men who would otherwise had to retire early. Somewhere, those plans were lost never to be heard again.

Now it seems, as Thottam writes, the government wants to tackle the problem seriously and prevent Ganga , Yamuna and other rivers from dying. If the rivers like Ganga and Yamuna die, a big part of India 's heritage and economy will also die with them. And that would be a big, big disaster for India , bigger than the wars the country has fought since independence..