Analysis of Impact of Cremation on Water Quality of River Ganga at Digha Ghat in Patna, Bihar, India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47604/ijes.2791Abstract
Purpose: Water related ecosystems face numerous threats, including pollution, climate change and overexploitation. The extent of surface water bodies, such as lakes, rivers and reservoirs, are rapidly changing worldwide. Traditional belief holds that being cremated at the bank of Ganga River and immersing ashes cleans the sins of those who die and carry them directly to salvation. Cremation remains when combine with river water, directly or indirectly impact human health and harms aquatic life. The present study was carried out at cremation ground on the river Ganga at three sampling sites near Digha Ghat in Patna district of Bihar, India. The objective of the study was to investigate water quality and suitability of water of Ganga River for aquatic life, irrigation and drinking.
Methodology: Total twelve physiochemical parameters viz temperature, TDS, pH, turbidity, electrical conductivity, total hardness, calcium hardness, magnesium hardness, DO, BOD, alkalinity, acidity, chloride, fluoride, phosphates, sulphates, sodium, potassium, iron were analysed by using standard methods described by APHA and the results were compared with water quality standards prescribed by Bureau of Indian standard (IS:10500).
Findings: The abundance of major ions trends indicating impacts of cremation activities on river water quality. Parameters, DO, BOD and phosphates were not recorded within permissible limit in water samples collected from cremation ground at Digha ghat. Higher values of turbidity at locations near cremation ghat may be attributed to addition of ashes bathing and other anthropogenic activities.
Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The study suggests that deterioration of water quality at cremation ghat of river Ganga needs regular monitoring and conservation measures.
Downloads
References
Alam, A., Barkatullah, Md. & Kumar, A. (2023). Water quality status of different ghats of River Ganga in Patna Urban Area. The 4th International Electronic Conference on Applied Sciences, 56(1), 85. https://doi.org/10.3390/ASEC2023-15408
Anh, N.T., Can, L.D., Nhan, N.T., & Schmalz, B. (2023). Influences of key factors on river water quality in urban and rural areas: A review. Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering. 8, 100424. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscee.2023.100424
APHA. (2017). Standard Methods for Examination of Water and Wastewater, 23rd Edition., Washington D.C.
Basak, S., Sarkar, A., Ghosh, R. & Chaudhuri, A. (2015). Ghats of Varanasi - An emerging centre of pollution. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 20(9), Ver. I,19-24. https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:131365432
Bihar Basins. (n.d.). Retrieved.November 7. (2023). https://beams.fmiscwrdbihar.gov.in/glance/glancemaster.aspx
BIS. (2012). Indian Standard Drinking Water Specification. Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi.
Devananda, B. (2017). Depletion of water bodies due to urbanization and management. International Education and Research Journal, 3(6).
Ganges River Basin, Retrieved September 27, (2023). https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/ganges-river-basin/
Imam, Md. K., Kishor, A., & Mehta, T. (2021). Water quality assessment of river Ganga using WQI at Patna, South Bihar, India. IJARIIE-ISSN(O)-2395-4396, 7(3), 864-871.
Jaiswal, S. K. (2017). Changes in water quality index of different Ghats of Ganges River in Patna. International Journal of Emerging Trends in Science and Technology, 4(8), 5549-5555. http://dx.doi.org/10.18535/ijetst/v4i8.20
Jhariya, D.C., and Tiwari A.K. (2020). Ganga River: A Paradox of Purity and Pollution in India due to Unethical Practice. National Conference on Challenges in Groundwater Development and Management IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science IOP Publishing, 597(1), 012023. https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/597/1/012023
Joshi, D.M., Singh, B.N., Kumar, A., & Agrawal, N. (2009). Statistical analysis of physicochemical parameters of water of river Ganga in Haridwar district. Rasayan J.Chem., 2(3), 579–587.
Kamboj, N., Bharti, M., Kamboj, V., Rani, A., Sharma, S. (2016). A comparative study of physico-chemical and bacteriological parameters of three different ritual bathing ghats of Ganga River in India. International Journal for Environmental Rehabilitation and Conservation, 7(2), 46-52.
Kesari, V., Kumar, S., Yadav, I.., Chatterjee, A., Rai, S., & Pandey, S. (2021). Ganga River water quality assessment using combined approaches: Physico-Chemical parameters and cyanobacterial toxicity detection with special reference to microcystins and molecular characterization of microcystin synthetase (mcy) genes carrying cyanobacteria. Environment Science and Pollution Research, 29, 13122-13140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16589-1
Khwairakpam, D., Kumar, N. & Srivastava, K. (2018). Environment impact of cremation activities in Manikarnika Ghat, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. IJSRD - International Journal for Scientific Research & Development, ISSN (online): 2321-0613, 6(4), 843-845.
Kumar, A., Gangwar, T., Kumar, J. & Anand, A. (2024), Water quality assessment of drinking water in government hospitals in Patna District of Bihar, India. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), e-ISSN: 2395-0056, p-ISSN: 2395-0072, 11(05), 1664-1674.
Kumar, A., Singh, K.K., & Singh, V. (2020). Study of rate of deterioration of water quality of River Ganga, Patna, Bihar. International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts, 8(10), 3593-3599.
Kumar, P., Kaushal, R. K. & Nigam, A. K. (2016). Assessment and management of Ganga River water quality using multivariate statistical techniques in India. Asian Journal of Water, Environment, and Pollution, 12(4), 61–69. https://doi.org/10.3233/AJW-150018
Matta, G., Srivastava, S.., Pandey, R. and Saini, K. (2017). Assessment of physicochemical characteristics of Ganga Canal water quality in Uttarakhand. Environment, Development and Sustainability. 19(2), 419-431. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-015-9735-x
Maurya, U.S., and Sharma, A. (2016). The impact of cremation centres in river pollution: A case study from Gomti River, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. International Journal of Geology, Earth & Environmental Sciences ISSN (Online): 2277-2081, 6(3), 8-15, (2016).
National mission of clean Ganga, New Delhi, India, https://nmcg.nic.in/gazette_notification.aspx
Pandey, R., Raghuvanshi, D., & Shukla D.N. (2014). Assessment of physico-chemical parameters of River Ganga at Allahabad with Respect To WQI. International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, Vol.3(9), 16639-16640. http://dx.doi.org/10.15680/IJIRSET.2014.0309076
Pollution Assessment River Ganga, CPCB, https://cpcb.nic.in/wqm/pollution-assessment-ganga-2013.pdf
Potasznik, A. & Szymczyk, S. (2015). Magnesium and calcium concentrations in the surface water and bottom deposits of a river-lake system. Journal of Elementology, 20(3), 677-692. DOI: 10.5601/jelem.2015.20.1.788
Praveen, A., Kumar, R., & Kumar, R. (2013). Physio-chemical properties of the water of river Ganga at Kanpur. International Journal of Computational Engineering Research, 3(4), 234-237
Rai, A. K., Paul, B., Mudra, L.., & Kishor, N. (n.d.). (2011). Studies of selected water quality parameters of River Ganges at Patna, Bihar. Journal of Advanced Laboratory Research in Biology, 2(4),136-140.
Riedel G.F. Williams S.A., Riedel G.S., Gilmour C.C., Sanders J.G., Temporal and spatial patterns of trace elements in the Patuxent River: A Whole Watershed Approach, Estuaries and Coasts, (2000), DOI: 10.2307/1353143.
Schaefer, S.C., Alber , M. (2007). Temporal and spatial trends in nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to the watershed of the Altamaha River, Georgia, USA, Biogeochemistry, Vol. 86, No. 3, pp. 231-249. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-007-9155-6
Sebastia-Frasquet, M.T., Aguilar-Maldonado, J.A., Santamarıa-D.E.E., & Estornell, J. (2019). Sentinel 2 Analysis of turbidity patterns in a coast- al lagoon. Imaging Floods and Glacier Geohazards with Remote Sensing,11(24), 2926. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11242926
Sileika, A., Staalnacke P., Kutra S.., Gailalis K.., Berankiene L. (2006). Temporal and spatial variation of nutrient levels in the Nemunas River Lithuania and Belarus, Environmental monitoring and assessment, springer 122(1-3):335-354. DOI: 10.1007/s10661-006-9186-9
Singh, B., Kumar, R., Gangwar, T., Singh, A.K., Chandra, P., Patel, V. and J. Kumar. (2022). Karyological study of an endemic anti fluorosis plant species of Rajauli Block of Nawada District of Bihar. J. Chemtracks, 24(1&2), 177-180.
Singh, B., Kumar, R., Gangwar, T., Singh, A.K., Chandra, P., Patel, V. & Kumar, J. (2023). Positive impact of consumption of fluoride safe potable water together with Moringa leaf powder on fluorosis patients of some habitation of Rajauli Block of Nawada District of Bihar. J. Chemtracks, 25(1&2), 161-178.
Singh M.R, Gupta, A., & Beeteswari, Kh. (2010). Physico-chemical properties of water samples from Manipur River system, India, Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management, 14(4), 85 – 89. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jasem.v14i4.63263
Singh, S.K., Kanth, M., K. Kumar, D. Raj, R. Kashyap, A., Jha, P. K., Anand, A.., Puja, K.., Kumari, S., Ali, Y., Lokesh, R. S., & Kumar, S. (2017). Analysis of water quality of River Ganga from Digha Ghat to Gai Ghat in Patna District, Bihar, India. International Journal of Life-Sciences Scientific Research, 3(5), 1350–1354. https://doi.org/10.21276/ijlssr.2017.3.5.14
Srivastava, R.K., Sinha, A.K.; Pande, D.P.; Singh K.P. & Chandra H. (1996). Water quality of the River Ganga at Phaphamau (Allahabad)—effect of mass bathing during Mahakumbh. Environmental Toxicology and Water Quality: An International Journal, 11(1), 1-5.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6. (2012). Ensure access to water and sanitation to all. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/
United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Report. (2023). https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2023/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2023.pdf
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Akshay Anand, Amit Kumar, Jayant Kumar, Bihari Singh, Tripti Gangwar
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
