Over a Tonne of Waste Pulled From Ganga at Dashashwamedh

Teams of the Varanasi Municipal Corporation and Namami Gange pulled more than a tonne of garbage out of the Ganga at Dashashwamedh Ghat on Thursday, as a cleanliness campaign on the river and its ghats picked up after the recent floods.

The drive was coordinated by Rajesh Shukla, Namami Gange's Kashi region coordinator, who is also the municipal corporation's cleanliness brand ambassador.

Under the campaign, cleaning is being done at several ghats and in the river itself. Teams are removing silt, puja material and other waste from the Ganga and its banks. Gangaputras, the boatmen and priests whose lives are tied to the river, are working alongside volunteers to collect puja remains and flood debris floating in the water.

Shukla said the floods had left every ghat in Varanasi covered in silt. The silt contains many substances that are polluting the Ganga and are also a danger to tourists who come to the river, he said. That was why the municipal corporation and Namami Gange had started a continuous cleanliness campaign, he said.

During Thursday's drive, people were also urged to honour their ancestors during Pitru Paksha by contributing to the cleanliness of the Ganga and its ghats. Pitru Paksha, the fortnight devoted to rituals for ancestors, brings large numbers of people to the ghats for tarpan and shraddh.

Volunteers on the river were also encouraging people who came to the ghats to take part in keeping the Ganga and its banks clean.

The organisers appealed to the public to join the shramdaan (voluntary labour) being carried out on the ghats and help keep the river and its banks clean after the floods.

Thursday's drive follows earlier rounds by the same team. On 22 September, Shukla's volunteers and municipal staff collected roughly 100 kg of discarded clothes and polythene from the Manikarnika stretch, and before that they had cleared flood debris from the Dashashwamedh steps and handed it to the municipal corporation.

The floods submerged the ghats in Varanasi this monsoon. As the water went down, it left silt on the stone steps along with debris carried by the current, and clearing it has kept municipal teams busy since.

Dashashwamedh, where the evening Ganga aarti is held, is among the busiest ghats in the city, and Thursday's haul of more than a tonne came from the river at that one ghat.

The cleaning comes at a time when the ghats are about to get busier. Pitru Paksha is starting, and the Ramnagar Ramlila opened on Friday, followed by Navratri and Durga Puja next month.

The campaign is set to continue at other ghats in the coming days, with municipal teams and Namami Gange volunteers working through the silt ghat by ghat.