Mahakumbh Nagar/Lucknow:
On Thursday, the Uttar Pradesh government, quoting a scientist, tried to ‘remove doubts’ about the purity of Ganga water in Mahakumbh and said that the river water is’ like’ alkaline water ‘. According to the data of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, more than 58 crore people have taken a dip in the water of the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati in the water of Triveni Sangam, in the Mahakumbh in Prayagraj since January 13. On behalf of the Uttar Pradesh government, it was said, ‘Famous scientist Padma Shri Dr. Ajay Kumar Sonkar has challenged those who question the correctness of Ganga water and rejected doubts about the sanctity of the Ganges with scientific evidence.’
The Uttar Pradesh government said that Dr. Sonkar collected water samples from five major bathing ghats including Sangam Noz and Arail of Mahakumbh Nagar. After this, these samples were screened in the laboratory. He was surprised to see that despite crores of devotees taking a bath in the river, there was neither the increase of bacteria nor the pH level of water.
According to the government, the research of Dr. Sonkar has shown that Ganga water contains 1,100 types of natural virus ‘bacteriophages’ which eliminate harmful bacteria. The controversy over the quality of water began when a CPCB report said that when the Mahakumbh started on January 13, the organic oxygen demand (BOD) of the river water at the confluence was 3.94 mg per liter.
According to CPCB, it improved to 2.28 mg per liter on Makar Sankranti (14 January) and declined further to 1 mg per liter on 15 January. However, on 24 January it increased to 4.08 mg per liter and on Mauni Amavasya (29 January) it was recorded at 3.26 mg per liter.