Ganges might be one of the sacred rivers to Hindus but it is also the second most-polluted river in the world after China’s Yangtze. Every year, Ganges dumps 115,000 tonnes of plastic into the Bay of Bengal, thus becoming a major source of marine pollution.
According to researchers at The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch foundation working on new technologies to rid the oceans of plastic, rivers carry an estimated 1.15-2.41 million tonnes of plastic into the sea every year. And two-thirds of the pollution entering the oceans from across the world come from the 20 most polluting rivers, a majority of which are in Asia. India’s Ganges is the second on the list.
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