[Sharon]

The Ganges, also Ganga, is a trans-boundary river of Asia which flows through the nations of India and Bangladesh. The 2,525 km (1,569 mi) river rises in the western Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and flows south and east through the Gangetic Plain of North India into Bangladesh, where it empties into the Bay of Bengal. It is the third largest river in the world by discharge.

The Ganges is the most sacred river to Hindus. It is also a lifeline to millions of Indians who live along its course and depend on it for their daily needs. It is worshipped as the goddess Ganga in Hinduism. It has also been important historically, with many former provincial or imperial capitals (such as Pataliputra, Kannauj, Kara, Kashi, Patna, Hajipur, Munger, Bhagalpur, Murshidabad, Baharampur, Kampilya, and Kolkata) located on its banks.

The Ganges was ranked as the fifth most polluted river of the world in 2007. Pollution threatens not only humans, but also more than 140 fish species, 90 amphibian species and the endangered Ganges river dolphin. The Ganga Action Plan, an environmental initiative to clean up the river, has been a major failure thus far, due to corruption, lack of technical expertise, poor environmental planning, and lack of support from religious authorities.

The river Ganges in India often conjures up images like these:

It is a holy river surrounded by many traditions and spiritual beliefs.

However poor families who cannot afford enough wood and other materials for the burning ceremony resort to placing the bodies directly in the water, while others are only partially cremated.

It is illegal to dispose of the dead in rivers, some practicing Hindus also believe that giving an unwed girl a water burial will ensure she is born again into the family.

The bodies of some holy men are also placed in the river instead of being cremated.

Hindus bathe in the Ganges as an act of ritual purification, but the 1,600-mile river flowing from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal is full of sewage and industrial waste and increasingly suffers from water shortages.

The bottom pic is a body that has washed up ashore on plantation so that's why it doesn't look like a riverbank.

[edwina22]

Filthy bastards,

[vanb]

This the same Ganges where they all shower and do the laundry?

[deadmaus]

There is something intrinsically wrong with people who can ignore this.

[Sharon]

Originally Posted by vanb ↗

This the same Ganges where they all shower and do the laundry?

Yes, a most sacred river!

[K53]

I would not want to catch any fish there.

[Rottweiler]

They also drink that water

[mkianni]

What a beautiful sunset on the world's most polluted river of floating corpses.

[wmbondurant]

The enormous goonch catfish has developed a taste for human flesh and is taking swimmers every year.

[Bletch]

Such filth of unimaginable proportions!