Look what just washed up at the Sangam, the spot where the sacred Ganga and Yamuna, the polluted Ganga and Yamuna, meet in Allahabad: a protest by religious heads against the government’s failure to clean up the two holy rivers. Two Shankaracharyas today led a protest at the Sangam along with other sadhus and pilgrims. They will also boycott the ritual mauni amavasya dip at the Sangam at the Magh Mela religious festival here tomorrow. ‘Hame janhit me pradushanmukt Ganga maiya chaiye (We want our mother Ganga mother free of pollution in public interest),’ reads one of the several slogans put up here. The Magh Mela runs through January and February. ‘‘The saints and kalpavasis (pilgrims who travel to Allahabad during the Magh month) are deeply hurt at the callous attitude of the Central and state governments who are supposed to ensure that the Ganga stays free of pollution,’’ said Swami Swaroopananda, the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath and Dwarka peeths. He will lead Saturday’s protest along with the Puri Shankaracharya, Swami Nishchalananda. Yet another sadhu, Chidatmanji Maharaj, has also threatened a fast unto death here. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has jumped onto the bandwagon. ‘‘The sadhus are deeply upset with the growing pollution in the Ganga at Allahabad. The VHP will also launch an agitation from Jajmau in Kanpur,’’ VHP’s international working president Ashok Singhal, who recently visited Allahabad, told The Indian Express. Painted into a corner, officials said they had already taken their first step towards turning the tap off on pollution by stopping the flow of effluents from 18 polluting units into the Sangam. ‘‘We hope we can persuade the sadhus to call off their boycott on Saturday. Bathing on Mauni Amavasya has been a ritual for years, and lakhs take their holy dip every year,’’ Devesh Chaturvedi, the District Magistrate of Allahabad, said. A survey on the two rivers conducted by Ecofriends, a Kanpur-based NGO, threw up some ugly statistics: 57 drains carried 210 MLD (million litres a day) of waste water into the Ganga and the Yamuna. ‘‘The discharge included a deadly cocktail of waste materials and chemicals (137 MLD) that reaches the Yamuna through 12 drains, while 34 drains flowed into the Ganga to contribute the remaining 73 MLD,’’ said Rakesh Jaisal of Ecofriends. That the water at the Sangam was unfit for bathing had been conceded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Jaisal added. ‘‘Information available on the ministry’s website grades the water as belonging to the ‘E’ category i.e. water which is fit only for irrigation or industrial cooling. The desired class of water for outdoor bathing is ‘B’. Imagine the kind of water the devout carry back as Gangajal in their cans!’’
