ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I , Ayush Govil, extend my heartfelt

gratitude to my Alma Mater (DPS) Delhi
Public school, Navi Mumbai for all the
support extended to me for the successful
completion of my research project.

A generous note of thanks for my English

teacher, Ms Swalaya Date for her kind
guidance throughout the process. Thank
you!
 INDEX

PAGE
S.NO PARTICULARS NO.
1. SYNOPSIS OF THE PODCAST 6

2. SEQUENTIAL PLAN OF ACTION 8

3. ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY 9

4. REASON FOR CHOSING THE DO 13

5. REFLECTION 14

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY 15
 SYNOPSIS
The documentary Red Alert: The Ganga is made by film makers and
conservationists Pete Mc Bride and Jake Norton. Film makers’ objective is to
see if the Ganges magic was still there and how it coexists with the darker reality
because they find the world's most sacred river is also one of the most
contaminated. They also document the water quality at various stages of the
long journey of Ganges from Himalayas to the sea and see why people have
faith in river Ganga.
For the Hindus, God pervades the whole universe. Rivers are His very life blood
and of all rivers, Ganges is the most Holy. People come to its banks to wash
away their sins. The most pious tribute to Ganges is to travel its complete length
of 1500 miles from Himalayas to Bay of Bengal and back again from another
bank and this is what the film makers intended to do. For the people the Ganges
is giver of life and forgiver of sins. In Banaras thousand come to die near their
beloved river with a hope to get salvation or Moksha.In 1800s British soldiers
insisted to take water of Ganges while going to England because it would stay
fresh for entire journey compared to water of other rivers like Thames which
spoilt within a week.
The documentary starts from New Delhi from where the film makers take a
train journey and then through mountainous roads to reach Gangotri. Enroute
they meet with a land slide which makes them use mules to continue their
journey forward.
Gau Mukh, the source of Ganga is at 13458 feet above sea level. They document
water quality and find that dissolved oxygen is healthy while nitrates and 27
heavy metals show pollution. They move further up to ashram of Mouni Baba
at 14200 feet in Gangotri Glacier to test first water of Ganges. The water here
is at its purest form. The scenes captured by the film makers are breath
taking. The documentary tell that snow is melting at the rate of sixty feet per
year and in forty years Himalayan glaciers will vanish. They encounter thirty
eight avalanches in the glacier during their stay.
Their next destination is Devprayag. Major attraction here is the Ganga Aarti
done with Attitude of Gratitude every night. However, the first signs of human
beings polluting Ganges appear here. Plastic waste on banks of Ganga can be
seen at many places. Sad part is that the local people believe that inspite of all
the pollution, Ganga is still pure. They are unaware that they are causing great
harm to their beloved river. The documentary shows that along with Tehri Dam
after Rishikesh there are 16 Mega hydroelectric dams on Ganga basin and 14
under construction while 54 more are proposed. A large part of river would dry
up and course may change causing great damage to the whole region.
Further down the course of the river, the documentary shows sorry state of
affairs at important cities from where the Ganges flow. At Agra, in Yamuna the
largest tributary of Ganges, Dhobi Ghat on banks of river is filled with
pollutants. At Kanpur Ganges is almost black. Slums, unauthorised colonies,
no sewer system, no Municipal government makes the river polluted. People
are rarely seen bathing in the river. Poverty along the river is a challenge for
India's river cleaning program. The film makers at Allahabad are amazed to find
the Ganges shows signs of restoring itself. Here all heavy metals test below
limits and dissolved oxygen level is also high. Varanasi considered to be one of
the oldest cities on earth has a huge cremation place near the Ghats of Ganges.
The ashes and sometimes dead bodies are thrown in Ganges. The big question
to the locals is, if we worship Ganga how can we polluted Ganga. For the people
it is the flow of grace from divine spiritual and Ganga is eternally pure.
The activists and conservationists believe that Ganges is suffering from
industrial pollution and religious pollution. Many studies of Ganges water show
presence of bacteriophages bacteria which host on other bacteria and kills it for
its survival. The water in river is decreasing day by day and high pollution level
is causing skin infection, urinary tract infection and main reason for Typhoid. In
Kolkata, oxygen is poor but heavy metals are below limits. It continues to
receive 2.9 billion litres of untreated raw sewage daily.
The film makers conclude that water tests found forms of pollution everywhere
but study also showed that something more than dilution is keeping Ganga
cleaner and more alive than expectation of scientists. So there is physically
magic in it but if things don't change fast, mother Ganges may soon take its last
breath. The documentary end with a question for all its viewers and people who
love and have faith in river Ganges. It is for the people to their bit to bring
Ganges to its old glory.
 SEQUENTIAL PLAN OF ACTION

• Firstly, our teacher introduced us to the project.

• We were supposed to select a podcast, a
documentary or an interview.
• It was cleared by our teacher that the podcast or
the documentary should not be related to serial
killing or any unlawful homicides.
• From the four sources i.e. podcast, documentary,
radio or an interview we were required to select
any one.
• After the source was selected we were to listen or
watch the documentary.
• Thereafter we were to write an essay of 800-1000
words (For or Against) the topic on which we had
listened the podcast.
• Then after this was done we had to arrange it in a
project format with all the essential pages required
(that is Cover Page, Certificate,
Index,Acknowledgement and so on).
 ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY(FOR)

The Ganges River, the largest

river in India is most sacred in
the Hindu tradition and is
understood as the
personification of the Goddess
Ganga. Not only does the river
have religious importance but
a geographical one too, it
being a part of the Ganges-
Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM)
River Basin, one of the largest
river systems in the world. Rising in the Himalayas and emptying into
the Bay of Bengal, it drains one-fourth of the territory of India, and its
basin supports hundreds of millions of people, provides irrigation,
supports electricity generation and also facilitates water sports.
As the river empties into the Bay of Bengal, the mouth forms the
Ganges River Delta, the largest river delta in the world. Approximately
1,000 miles (1,600 km) of waterways in the Ganges basin from
Prayagraj to Haldia is included in the extensive system of national
waterways.
The river, which is severely polluted with human waste and industrial
contaminants, provides
water to about 40%
of India's population across
11 states, serving an
estimated population of
500 million people, which
is more than any other river
in the world.Today, the
Ganges is considered to be
the fifth-most polluted river in the world. Stretches of over 600 km
(370 mi) were essentially ecologically dead zones.
Pete McBride and Jake Norton in their
documentary, Red Alert Ganga, traverse
1500 miles along the river, from Gangotri,
its source to the Bay of Bengal. They
witness the magic of the mighty river,
tremendous faith of the people despite the
awareness about its bad water quality in so
many places. They have shown us the
mirror of how the activities of people living
along the river and so much dependant on
it, have brought so much misery to it. The
pollution starts right from Gaumukh, its
source where large quantity of plastics is
found in the river.
One can’t agree more with the makers about the inaction of the
government when they find the river almost black in Kanpur due to the
discharge from the tanneries and the absence of sewage system. Just
like the makers, I have also wondered as to how can those very people
who worship the river can bring it so much damage. The documentary
shows the mirror about the poor state of the river and the deteriorating
quality of its water.

The documentary inspired me to

get more information and other
issues facing the river. I found that
the course of the river too is
changing due to growing human
encroachment on the flood plains
due to which villages are
disappearing, towns are shrinking, and over the past decade, more
than a million people have been displaced. In a 250-sq.km area
between eastern Malda and Rajmahal in Sahebganj district of
Jharkhand, people shift from villages to floodplains or from one
floodplain to another every 10 or 12 years. The changing course of the
river has altered the addresses of many people.
The documentary also
touches on the increase in
the number of flooding
events in the river basin due
to major dams being built
on the river and has
modified the
water activity in addition to
climatic changes. There are
at least a thousand dams on the Ganga basin. The Tehri dam, for
instance, blocks sediment flow from upstream and controls the volume
of water that flows downstream. The lack of sedimentation in the
downstream Ganga basin has altered the river's morphology. Other
concerns are ruthless sand and boulder mining, indiscriminate
extraction of groundwater and loss of flood plains. Extinction of some
fish species like Hilsa and Dolphins from the river have also been
noticed.
A number of initiatives have been
undertaken to clean the river, but failed to
deliver desired results, despite honest
intentions of the government. The Namami
Ganga project was announced by the
government in the June 2014 budget and
an estimated Rs.28,790 crore have been
sanctioned till Dec 2020 towards effective
abatement of pollution, conservation, and
rejuvenation of the Ganges. Many industrial
units have been ordered to shut down. The programme will be working
on Sewerage treatment infrastructure, industrial effluent monitoring,
river-surface cleaning, Ganga gram etc.
 In my view, stricter norms and
penalties should be imposed on
industries and individuals on
polluting the river. It is in our
hands to make Ganga defecation
free, abide by the anti-pollution
norms, spread awareness of
government programs and taking
the defaulters to task. There should also be tighter control on religious
ceremonies which pollute the river. Sewage discharge has to be
eliminated by involving local and civic bodies.

A sustainable development
model should be worked out for
cities along the river which
should seriously integrate long-
term ecological and
sustainability goals. The
policies should be compatible
with technology and broader
aspects of holistic water
management. Some projects of
the government like the Ganga waterway do not seem to be thoroughly
thought out since they would endanger the fish diversity and the acqua
fauna of the river. Lastly, all the programs of various states regarding
management of the Ganga should be integrated and cohesive between
various states.
 WHY HAVE I CHOSEN THIS
DOCUMENTARY

English project work was given to us in which we had to listen to

podcast/interviews/radio or TV documentary and submit countering
or agreeing with the speakers. There were many thoughts going in
my mind while selecting the documentary for this project.
To make it a meaningful exercise, I decided to choose a
documentary on environment as it is one of the most critical
challenge faced by human kind and it is one of the most talked about
topic across the globe. Environment plays an important role in
healthy living and the existence of life on planet earth. We all are
dependent on the environment for food, air, water, and other needs.
Therefore, it is important for every individual to save and protect
our environment.
Further drilling down on the topics related to environment in Indian
context, I found issues related to Ganges very fascinating. I have
read a lot on Goddess Ganga in Hindu mythology. However the
current state of affairs of this Holy river gives a very different
picture. Importance of river Ganga to every Indian can be known
from the fact that Government of India has a separate ministry to
clean Ganga.
To know more about the river and various steps which are being
taken and what needs to be done, I decided to watch the
documentary Red Alert: Ganga and make it my project work.
 REFLECTION
• When this project was introduced, the first thing was to
find a suitable documentary or a podcast on which I would
like to write about.
• There were a lot many options to choose from.
• While binge watching my favourite series Friends I saw the
advertisement of this documentary.
• As I always get fascinated by Mother Earth and its
elements I thought of watching its trailer.
• Watching that I realised the severity of the situation of our
holy river Ganga and how we as humans never fail to harm
nature directly or indirectly.
• Then I made up my mind to do my English project on this
very topic and educate myself more about it.
• I watched the documentary twice very carefully and jotted
down all the important points and arguments.
• For further research on the topic I went through many
websites,articles,data and discussions related to Ganga
and its cleaning process and completed writing the report.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Documentary from Hotstar app by National

Geographic.
• Research work-
i. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
ii. https://nmcg.nic.in/NamamiGanga.aspx
iii. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/study-
finds-microplastics-pollution-in-the-
ganga/article35468678.ece