Introduction

The Ganges/Ganga is a trans-boundary river of Asia which flows through India and Bangladesh.
The river is home to approximately 140 species of fish, 90 species of amphibians, and also
reptiles and mammals, including critically endangered species such as the gharial and South
Asian river dolphin.

The Ganges is a lifeline to millions of people who live in its basin and depend on it for their daily
needs. It has also been important historically.

The Ganges is threatened by severe pollution created by humans. This poses a danger not only
to humans but also to animals. The levels of bacteria from human waste in the river near
Varanasi are more than a hundred times the Indian government's official limit.

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), stated that the Himalayan
glaciers which feed the river were at risk of melting by 2035 because of global warming

Geology
The Indian subcontinent lies atop the Indian tectonic plate, a minor plate. The subcontinent's
subsequent collision with the Eurasian Plate and subduction under it, gave rise to the
Himalayas, the planet's highest mountain ranges. In the former seabed immediately south of
the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast trough, which, having gradually been
filled with sediment borne by the Indus and its tributaries and the Ganges and its tributaries,
now forms the Indo-Gangetic Plain.
The Indo-Gangetic Plain is geologically known as a foredeep or foreland basin.

Religious and cultural significance

The Ganges is a sacred river to Hindus along every fragment of its length. All along its course,
Hindus bathe in its waters, paying homage to their ancestors and their gods. On the journey
back home from the Ganges, they carry small quantities of river water with them for use in
rituals; Ganga Jal, literally "the water of the Ganges".

Regardless of all scientific understanding of its waters, the Ganges is always ritually and
symbolically pure in Hindu culture.

Tourism
Tourism is another related activity. Three towns holy to Hinduism—Haridwar, Prayagraj, and
Varanasi—attract millions of pilgrims to its waters to take a dip in the Ganges, which is believed
to cleanse oneself of sins and help attain salvation.

Facts
The first European traveller to mention the Ganges was the Greek envoy Megasthenes
India's national aquatic animal is the freshwater Ganges river dolphin
The Ganges river dolphin is one of only five true freshwater dolphins in the world.
The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna system is the third largest river on earth by discharge