M2 MARY

GANGA QUEST 2021 BY MARY ARPANA KUJUR

MATERIALs FOR GANGA QUEST 1. The river Ganga originates from Gangotri glacier near Gaumukh (3,900 m) in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. Here, it is known as the Bhagirathi. It cuts through the Central and the Lesser Himalayas in narrow gorges. At Devprayag, the Bhagirathi meets the Alaknanda; then, it is known as the Ganga. 2. The Son River originates near Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh, just east of

the headwater of the Narmada River, and flows north-northwest through Madhya Pradesh state before turning sharply eastward where it encounters the southwest-northeast-Kaimur Range. 3. The Gandak River (also known as the Narayani and the Gandak) is one of the major rivers of Nepal and a left-bank tributary of the Ganges in India. It originates from the Nepal-China border in Tibet and joins Ganga near Hajipur (Bihar). 4. The Kosi River, one of the oldest rivers in Indian history, it is also known as Sapta

Kosi means seven rivers. is known as the \"Sorrow of Bihar\" as the annual floods affect about 21,000 km sq (8,100 sq mi) of fertile agricultural lands thereby disturbing the rural economy. Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar is located on the Rihand River which is the tributary of the Son River. 5. The Mahananda River is a trans- boundary river that flows through the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, and Bangladesh. It originates in the Himalayas: Paglajhora Falls on Mahaldiram Hill near

Chimli, east of Kurseong in Darjeeling district. 6. Ramganga, Kosi, and Mahananda are the left bank tributaries of Ganga River whereas Son is the right bank tributary of River Ganga The Tehri Dam is the highest dam in India and one of the highest in the world. It is a multi-purpose rock and earth-fill embankment dam on the Bhagirathi River near Tehri in Uttarakhand, India.

7. The 'Namami Gange' programme was launched as a mission to achieve the target of cleaning river Ganga in an effective manner by involving all stakeholders, especially five major Ganga basin states i.e. Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal. The programme envisages river surface cleaning, STP infrastructure, river front development, bio-diversity, afforestation and public awareness. The new projects, approved by the NMCG for Haridwar, include setting up 68 million liters per day (MLD) sewage treatment plant (STP) in Jagjeetpur and 14 MLD STP in Sarai at an indicative cost of INR 110.30 crore and INR

25 crore, respectively, under Hybrid Annuity based PPP mode. 8. Giving a boost to Ganga Rejuvenation efforts, NGRBA has decided to approve projects worth INR 2446 crore. What does NGRBA stand for? ANSWER: National Ganga River Basin Authority 9. Providing a major boost to Ganga rejuvenation efforts, National Ganga River Basin Authority has approved projects worth Rs 2446 crore for development of 'ghats' and crematoriums at various places

along the river in four states and along its tributary Yamuna in Delhi. 10. The projects will be implemented along the river stretch from Haridwar to Uttarakhand border, Garhmukteshwar in Uttar Pradesh, Buxar, Hajipur and Sonepur in Bihar, Sahibganj, Rajmahal and Kanhaiya 'ghat' in Jharkhand. 11. The project is also meant for afforestation along the banks of river Ganga. However, additional fund of Rs 2294 crore for afforestation under 'Forestry Intervention in River Ganga' scheme of the Centre will be approved later.

12. The Ganga River Cleaning program has been collaborating with Germany. Germany has been known for cleaning which of its river? Germany’s example of cleaning up of its river Rhine will be replicated for the Ganga. The MoWR signed an agreement with the German International Cooperation (GIZ) of Germany to help with cleaning the Ganga. The ‘Namami Ganga’ is a flagship Rs. 30,000-crore programme of the NDA government to clean the Ganga and restore its flows by 2020. Since 2015 Germany, assisting financially and technically to deal with industrial

effluents in Uttarakhand, before they empty out into the river. Germany’s ultimate goal is to bring back ‘Mother Ganga’ in India to its pristine condition as it has been done successfully for ‘Father Rhine’ in Germany. 13. In 2016 National Mission for Clean Ganga under the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK) announced the formal launch of Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (CGRBMS) in New Delhi i. The Ministry signed 10-year Memorandum of Agreement

with IITK for provision of continual scientific support in the implementation and dynamic evolution of the Ganga River Management plan. 14. Name the programme launched by Government with Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) located on the banks of the river Ganga for achieving the objective of Clean Ganga? Answer: Nirmal Ganga Sahbhagita Explanation: The initiative aims at sensitizing the ULBs about the pollution in river Ganga arising primarily due to dumping of solid waste in

the river/nallas and to involve them in a long term engagement in stoppage of the solid waste flow from nallas/drains to the river. 15. The Brahmaputra enters India in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, where it is called Siang. It makes a very rapid descent from its original height in Tibet, and finally appears in the plains, where it is called Dihang. 16. NGRBA: National Ganga River Basin Authority NMCG: National Mission for Clean Ganga 17. MoEF: Ministry of Environment and Forests

18. MHRD: Ministry of Human Resource and Development 19. MoWR, RD&GR: Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation 20. GRBMP: Ganga River Basin Management Plan IITC: IIT Consortium 21. PMB: Project Management Board 22. PICC: Project Implementation and Coordination Committee 23. EQP: Environmental Quality and Pollution 24. WRM: Water Resource and Management 25. ENB: Ecology and Biodiversity

26. FGM: Fluvial Geomorphology 27. EFL: Environmental Flows 28. SEC: Socio Economic and Cultural 29. PLG: Policy Law and Governance 30. GDM: Geospatial Database Management 31. Mission Nirmal ͛ Dhara: Broad Plan of Action the MND provides a plan to gradually minimize the ingress of pollutants into the Ganga river system. This is to be achieved using a simultaneous two-pronged approach, i) by prohibiting/restricting certain activities in the NRGB, and ii) by promoting certain activities in NRGB

through implementation of numerous projects. 32. Mission A͞ viral Dhara͟ is to ensure that the flow of water – along with sediments, nutrients and other natural constituents of the flow – are continuous and adequate throughout the Ganga river network. 33. Prime Minister Inaugurates Projects Under 'Namami Gange' and 'AMRUT' Yojana in Bihar.

The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi have inaugurated various projects under ‘Namami Gange’ and ‘AMRUT’ Yojana in Bihar. Key Facts Schemes that were inaugurated include, Sewerage treatment plants at Beur Karam-Leechak in Patna city, Water-related projects in Siwan and Chhapra under the ‘AMRUT’ Yojana. Water supply projects in Munger and Jamalpur and River Front Development. 34. AMRUT Yojana The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) was launched by

Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi in June 2015. The main focus of the scheme was to establish infrastructure in order to ensure adequate sewage networks and water supply. The scheme was focused on urban transformation through implementing the urban revival projects. Rajasthan was the first state in the country to implement the state action plan under the scheme. The scheme is based on the public–private partnership (PPP) model. The main purpose of the scheme includes,

To ensure that every household has access to a tap water supply and sewage connection To increase Green cover and to maintain open spaces and parks while developing the city. To reduce pollution by switching to public transport and encouraging the non- motorized transport that is walking and cycling. 35. Namami Gange Project Namami Gange Project or Yojana is a flagship project of Union Government. The

project is officially known as Integrated Ganga Conservation Mission project. It integrates the efforts to clean and protect the Ganga river comprehensively. The project is aimed at Rejuvenating Ganga through existing plan and efforts as well as by making new action plans under it for future. 36. Uttar Pradesh's Startup HelpUsGreen honoured by UN. Uttar Pradesh based startup HelpUsGreen has been honored by UN for its works to clean River Ganga by recycling tonnes of floral waste. UN presented the award to the

14 other countries along with India at the Nations Climate Action award ceremony during the UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice. 37. November 13, 2018 Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s first Inland Multi-Modal Terminal Port on river Ganga at Ramnagar in Varanasi and received first container cargo belonging to PepsiCo. It is the first of four Multi-Modal Terminals being constructed on National Waterways-I (NW1) on River Ganga as part

of World Bank-aided Jal Marg Vikas project of Inland Waterways 38. Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation has prepared draft Bill which proposes setting up armed Ganga Protection Corps (GPC) to arrest any person who has committed offence of polluting River Ganga punishable under this law. The Bill calls for National Ganga Council and National Ganga Rejuvenation Authority to enforce law and protect Ganga River.

39. National River of India & Ganga Action Plan (GAP) • The Ganga Action Plan was originally initiated by India’s Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1986. The Ganga Action Plan phase-I entailed: • To abate pollution of the river • To restore the quality of river water to the ‘Bathing Class Standard’ • To improve the quality of the water • To intercept, divert and treat the domestic sewage • To prevent toxic industrial waste from entering into the river

• To put a stop to the unwanted entry of non-point pollutants into the river • To promote research and development to maintain the purity and cleanliness of the river • Development of new sewage treatment technology • To rehabilitate soft-shelled turtles to abate pollution as it has been demonstrated successfully • To use Ganga as resource recovery option so as to produce Methane for energy generation

• To impose similar action plans on other Ganga River stretches 40. Ganga Yatra under Namami Gange mission begins on 27 January from Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh. The yatra was launched by the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat and Union Minister Sanjeev Baliyan from Bijnor. Also, Governor Anandiben Patel, Union Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey and Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Modi launched it from Ballia in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Aim: The yatra aims to promote bio-diversity and to make the

villages situated on the banks of the holy river more developed and prosperous. 41. A Siamese festival called ‘Loy Krathong’ of Thailand includes a tradition of floating candles into the waterways praying to Goddess Ganga 42. Ganga is also mentioned in one of the four Vedas – Rigveda 43. Various reptiles and mammals find their habitat in the Ganga river: Gharial

44. National Aquatic Animal of India – Gangetic River Dolphin 45. The river starts from the Gangotri Glacier in the name of Bhagirathi river 46. The five confluences of Ganga river are revered as sacred and they are: Vishnuprayag – Dhauliganga joins the Alaknanda; Nandprayag – River Mandakini joins Karnaprayag – River Pindar joins Rudraprayag – River Mandakini joins Devprayag – Bhagirathi river and Alaknanda river form Ganga rive

47. Ghagra river is the largest tributary of river Ganga 48. Note: It is largest with respect to the volume of the river 49. Mainly the Sediment-laden flows of Ganga with the Brahmaputra river form Ganges Delta which is the world’s largest delta. 50. The government declared that the Ganges river between Allahabad and Haldia is National-Waterway No.1. The river has many industrial towns like Patliputra,

Kannauj, Kara, Allahabad, Murshidabad, Baharampur and Kolkata on its banks. The Ganges Basin drains 1,000,000-square- kilometre (390,000 sq mi) and supports one of the world's highest densities of humans. The average depth of the river is 52 feet (17 m), and the maximum depth, 100 feet (33 m). 51. During the early Vedic Age, the Indus and the Sarasvati River were the major rivers of the Indian subcontinent, not the Ganges. But the later three Vedas seem to give much more importance to the Ganges, as shown by its numerous

references. Possibly the first European Traveler to mention the Ganges was Megasthenes (ca. 350 – 290 BCE). In Rome's Piazza Navona, Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (fountain of the four rivers) was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and built in 1651. The art-work symbolizes four of the world's great rivers (the Ganges, the Nile, the Danube, and the Río de la Plata), which is to represent the four continents (Australia and Antarctica were unknown then). 52. Hindus regard the Ganges as not only a river but also a mother, a goddess, a

tradition, a culture, and much more. In Hinduism it is considered holy to take a pilgrimage to the Ganges and take a dip. 53. The Ganges and its all tributaries, especially the Yamuna, have been used for irrigation since ancient times. Dams and canals were common in gangetic plain by fourth century BCE. 54. The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin has a huge hydroelectric potential, on the order of 200,000 to 250,000 megawatts, nearly half of which could be easily harnessed. As of 1999, India tapped about

12% of the hydroelectric potential of the Ganges and just 1% of the vast potential of the Brahmaputra. 55. Megasthenes, a Greek ethnographer who visited India during third century BCE when Mauryans ruled India described the existence of canals in the gangetic plain. 56. A major barrage at Farakka was opened on 21 April 1975, It is located close to the point where the main flow of the river enters Bangladesh, and the tributary Hooghly (also known as Bhagirathi) continues in West Bengal past Kolkata. This barrage, which feeds the Hooghly branch of the river by a 42 km (26 mi) long feeder

canal, and its water flow management has been a long-lingering source of dispute with Bangladesh. Indo-Bangladesh Ganges Water Treaty signed in December 1996 addressed some of the water sharing issues between India and Bangladesh. 57. Tehri Dam was constructed on Bhagirathi River, tributary of the Ganges. It is located 1.5 km downstream of Ganesh Prayag, the place where Bhilangana meets Bhagirathi. Bhagirathi is called Ganges after Devprayag. Construction of the dam in an earthquake prone area was controversial. 58. Bansagar Dam was built on the Son River, a tributary of the Ganges for both

irrigation and hydroelectric power generation. 59. Three towns holy to Hinduism— Haridwar, Prayag (Allahabad), and Varanasi—attract thousands of pilgrims to its waters to take a dip in the Ganges, which is believed to cleanse oneself of sins and help attain salvation. The rapids of the Ganges also are popular for river rafting, attracting adventure seekers in the summer months. Also, several cities such as Kanpur, Kolkata and Patna have developed riverfront walkways along the banks to attract tourists.

60. Bengal tigers survive only in the Sundarbans area of the Ganges Delta. 61. the upper Gangetic Plain harboured impressive populations of wild Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), Bengal tigers (Panthera t. tigris), Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), gaurs (Bos gaurus), barasinghas (Rucervus duvaucelii), sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) and Indian lions (Panthera leo persica). In the 21st century there are few large wild animals, mostly deer, wild boars, wildcats, and small

numbers of Indian wolves, golden jackals, and red and Bengal foxes. 62. Threatened mammals in the upper Gangetic Plain include the tiger, elephant, sloth bear, and four-horned antelope (Tetracerus quadricornis). 63. Many types of birds are found throughout the basin, such as myna, Psittacula parakeets, crows, kit es, partridges, and fowls. Ducks and snipes migrate across the Himalayas during the winter, attracted in large numbers to wetland areas.

64. The main sections of the Ganges River are home to the gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) and mugger crocodile (Crocodylus palustris), and the delta is home to the saltwater crocodile (C. porosus). 65. The river's most famed fauna is the freshwater dolphin Platanista gangetica gangetica, the Ganges river dolphin, recently declared India's national aquatic animal. 66. River Ganga is about 1557 miles long(2506 km).

67. The Ganges basin is about 200 to 400 miles (322 to 644 km) wide. 68. River Ganga originates from the Gangotri Glacier, on the southern slopes of the Himalayas, which is 14,000 feet above sea level. 69. Rivers Bhagirathi and Alaknanda join each other at Devprayag to form River Ganga. 70. Hindus have always believed Ganga Jal to be pure, pious and drinkable. 71. In many Hindu rituals (from birth to death) much reverence is given to Ganga water.

72. River Ganga is considered to be very pure. 73. In 1896, a British bacteriologist Ernest Hanbury Hankin tested the bacterium Vibrio Cholerae that causes the deadly disease cholera, and found that this bacterium died within three hours when put into the waters of Ganga. 74. The same bacteria continued to thrive in distilled water even after 48 hours. 75. The presence of bacteriophages (viruses that kill bacteria) in the water of the Ganges is considered as the reason behind this quality and its purity.

76. In a study conducted by Malaria Research Center in New Delhi it was observed that water from the upper ambits of Ganga did not host mosquito breeding, and also prevented mosquito breeding if added to other water sources. 77. An unknown substance in Ganga acts on organic materials and bacteria and kills them. 78. The Ganga’s self-purifying quality leads to oxygen levels 25 times higher than any other river in the world. 79. Mistpouffers or Barisal Guns are unexplained sounds that resemble a sonic boom that have been reported to be heard

in Ganga. They resemble the sonic boom of a supersonic jet. 80. The Ganga in Haridwar has shifted from its original course by 500 meters in the past few decades. In Bihar, some parts of the river have shifted more than 2.5 km since 1990. 81. National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) was constituted for effective abatement of pollution and rejuvenation, protection and management of the River Ganga and its tributaries. Under the above mission, no untreated municipal sewage and industrial effluent is to be discharged into the River Ganga.

82. An Integrated Ganga Conservation Mission namely “Namami Gange” has been approved as ‘Flagship Programme’ set up in June 2015 to accomplish effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of the river. 83. The Ganga River Basin Management Plan (GRBMP) is an integrated river basin management plan for maintenance and restoration of wholesomeness of Ganga system and improvement of its ecological health with due regard to resolution of conflict of interest in water uses in the entire river Basin.

84. Which river is called \" Dakshin Ganga\" ? Ans. Godavari. 85. Which is the largest city on the bank of Ganga ? Ans. Kanpur. 86. Which tributary of Ganga River popularly known as \"Sorrow of Bihar\" ? Ans. Kosi. 87. What is the name of river Ganga in Bangladesh? Ans. Padma. 88. What is the full form of NGRBA? Ans . National Ganga River Basin Authority. 89. Who is the chairman of NGRBA?

Ans. Prime minister Shri Narendra Modi. 90. Who launched the Ganga Action Plan (GAP)? Ans. Prime minister Shri Narendra Modi. 91. In which state Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary is located ? Ans. Bihar. 92. Where the River Bhagirathi meets Alaknanda ? Ans. Devprayag. 93. Which nuclear power plant is located on the banks of River Ganga ? Ans. Narora 94. Which is the largest tributary of the river Ganga by volume?

Ans. Ghaghara. 95. What is the approximate length of the river Ganga? Ans. 2601km. 96. Which Indian City elected the Gangetic River Dolphin as a city animal? Ans. Guwahati. 97. In Which Year was National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) established? Ans. In 2009. 98. Which tributary of Ganga flows through Corbett national park? Ans. Ramganga and Kosi. 99. Who launched National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA)?

Ans. Shri Manmohan Singh. 100. Where was Guru Gobind Singh born? Ans. Patna 101. Which river is situated near Buddh Gaya(Bodh Gaya) Ans. Phalgu River, a tributary of the Ganges (Ganga) River. 102. Under which Scheme NGRBA was established? Ans. Clean Ganga Mission.