On Saturday morning the Saraswati river under the Bhandardah bridge at Domjur in Howrah, West Bengal, suddenly began to bubble as if boiling, giving off a foul smell. Word spread and crowds gathered on the banks. After more than an hour the bubbling slowly eased and stopped.
Puja Pal, who lives by the river, said it was the first time she had seen the water bubble like this, and blamed dirt, rubbish and acidic factory water draining into the river. Another resident, Barun Naskar, said heavy pollution was producing gas that bubbled up and spread the smell.
Bapi Thakur, secretary of the Save Saraswati River Committee, said the river has not been dredged or restored for a long time and pollution keeps rising. Rotting sludge often produces gases such as nitrogen and hydrogen, he said, and he believes that gas caused the bubbling.
Of the Saraswati's 77 km from Sankrail to Tribeni, he said, most has silted up into a drain, in places a narrow ditch. Years of neglect by the administration, the irrigation department and riverside residents have brought it to this state; no fish breed in it now and its water is no longer used for farming.
Older than the Bhagirathi, the Saraswati has yielded many traces of ancient architecture; the old port of Saptagram stood on its banks. Silted and polluted by urban growth, the river is now all but passing into history.
The report is by Kousik Sinha of Sangbad Pratidin.
Photo: Biswarup Ganguly / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Source: Sangbad Pratidin
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