This is one Ganga story you'll never forget. Everything you need to know about this holy mess

• Or roughly as much water flows in the Niagara Falls in one hour
• That's the sewage dumped daily in the Ganga

• Or a 100 million more than the population of the US
• That's the number of people who depend on the Ganga

mpn/100 ml

• That's the level of coliform bacteria in the Ganga in holy Varanasi. (And pretty much elsewhere)
• Hold your breath: It should be less than 50 mpn/100 ml to be fit for drinking
• Less than 500 mpn/100 ml for bathing
• And below 5,000 mpn/100 ml to be fit for agricultural use
• The main reason for coliform in water? Dumping of human faeces, urine and sewage

rupees

• That's the amount spent 'cleaning' the Ganga since 1985, when the Ganga Action Plan first began
• The result: it's more polluted now

• One of top 5 most polluted rivers in the world: that's the star ranking the Ganga enjoys
• Here's what the Holy Ganga is made of today: insecticides, pesticides, weedicides, carcinogenic chemicals, industrial waste, human faeces, and rotting corpses

Crows feed on a dead cow in Allahabad. PM Modi vowed to clean up the Ganga, but his election vow is not going to be easy to fulfil. Photo: Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images

• That's the number of dams that exist, are proposed, or under construction on the Ganga
• Impact: The flow of its water is down to 10%
• The main reasons for the Ganga crisis? Volume of sewage. And reduced water flow

• Quote: Enough to demonstrate the folly of this.
• "Having commissioned the Tehri Dam as the environment minister of Uttar Pradesh, I have no qualms in saying it was the biggest mistake of my life. The dam was supposed to generate 2,400 MW of electricity. Not even 400 MW has been generated." - MP Rewati Raman Singh, Samajwadi Party

• Is all that remains untouched of the 2,500 km long river
• 14 kilometres from its source, it starts getting tunneled. And remains tunneled for 130 km through the earthquake prone Himalayas
• Imminent danger: remember the 2013 flash floods in Uttarakhand? 5,000 dead
• Previous governments had allowed pan masala firms, tourism firms, even cycle manufacturers to set up hydroelectric projects in this seismic zone

• That's how much of the Ganga is already diverted for agriculture. Not only is this killing the river, its toxic water is seeping into the food India eats

• Doable solutions suggested by experts:
• a) Restore the run of the river. Let it oxygenate itself
• b) Recycle treated sewage water in cities. Do not dump in the river at all
• c) Focus on creating efficiency in existing hydroelectric projects. Do not commission more

• Reasons all this matters:
• 50 species of animals, 23 species of fish, and over 500 varieties of trees live in the Gangetic plain. If the river dies any further, they die
• But it's not just the river dolphin or the hilsa that is in danger. 400 million people are
• Imagine that many people unable to access water to drink, bathe, water their fields or feed into industry
• Imagine the downstream impacts of that

Boys search for coins after the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad in 2013. Photo: Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images

• Key problem. Is there enough political will to do what's obvious to save the Ganga? The UPA government did very little
• Which leads us to our next question: What has the new government done, till now?
• To start off, it created a fanfare in Madison Square
• It also renamed a ministry: The former Ministry of Water Resources is now called Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation after three decades of its existence

rupees

• That's the amount sanctioned in Budget 2015-16 for cleaning the Ganga
• ISRO can send four Mangalyaans to Mars with this amount

rupees

• That's how much the cabinet cleared on 14 May 2015 for cleaning the Ganga in the next five years
• This is a five-fold increase in the money spent in the last three decades

rupees

• That's how much the urban development ministry will spend over the next 5 years to expand sewage infrastructure in 118 urban habitations along the Ganga
• Which nearly equals the amount allocated to midday meals over the last 5 years. Which fed over 50 crore children in more than 50 lakh schools

rupees

• That's the amount the Centre is supposed to give to the states to free 1,632 gram panchayats near the Ganga from open defecation

• Is the number of spiritual leaders, academicians, technocrat, environmentalists and policy makers who attended 'Ganga Manthan' - a national dialogue to provide ideas to clean the Ganga
• However, an action plan provided by a group of secretaries on August 2014 is 'still being examined'

• That's how long the Supreme Court said it's going to take the Modi government to clean the Ganga at the rate it's moving
• In September 2014, rapping the government for this, the court called it Kumbhakaran - the legendary sleeper in the Ramayan
• The government replied it would take it 18 years, not 200
• In the meantime, it has approved a Clean Ganga Fund to seek donations (with tax exemptions) from NRIs and Indian citizens
• It also plans to set up daughter funds in countries with high donor interests like the US, UK, UAE and Singapore
• Unfortunately, money by itself, is not a natural purifier