Ecology of Indian rivers: Review

The literature on river ecology and pollution in India is largely spread over the past fifty years since its beginning and there are no consolidated data on any river systems to assess the changing trends over the past many years in view of the increasing anthropogenic impact on river systems. The Ganga has been studied right from Gangotri, its source to Hooghly by several workers but no trend in their longitudinal distribution of nutrients over a period of time or physico-chemical aspects have been derived. The phytoplankton, zooplankton benthos, bacteria, macrophytes and heavy metal distribution in water, sediment and plants have been studied by many workers in selected sites and are fragmentary. The trend in distribution from upstream to downstream, the difference between mainstream and tributaries and differences between the rivers in chemical and biological aspects are littered in large number of Journals, within and outside the country. It is a gigantic task to review all the literature and find out the changing face of river ecology in India.

This book 'River Ecology in India' is my desperate attempt to join together the bits of knowledge on Indian river systems we gained through over the half decade. Consolidation, comparison, site differences upstream downstream variations and finding out possible trends have been the major objectives in this book. A research scholar, a teacher or a scientist should be able to advance his knowledge by reading this book has been my aim and am satisfied if the purpose is solved.

Our culture and civilization has taught us that our rivers are supreme and given the status of mother. The river sites are so beautiful, enchanting, useful, most sacred and inspiring to all of us. These sites are now the most ugly, filthy, neglected and have become sites for defecation. The alarming rates of increase in our population and lack of basic needs of society have been responsible for the largescale devaluation of our values, ethics, culture economy and environmental degradation. It has rendered our most sacred rivers highly polluted and hazardous during the past few decades. The religious, innocent rural and even the educated and literate mass still take a dip in Ganga at various sites without caring that they are likely to transmit diseases and infections. The reverence to rivers in contrast have increased as one can see the ever increasing pilgrim numbers taking bath at Hardwar, Banaras, Allahabad, during auspicious days and during Kumbh.