Main Tributary to India's Ganges River Is Dead, Says Expert

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Toxic foam is covering India's Yamuna River, a main tributary to the Ganges River and considered sacred to Hindus, leading an expert to say the river no longer supports life.

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00:00Taksif Film now covers the surface of one of India's major rivers, the Yamuna, with

00:05environmental experts saying this means the river is dead.

00:09The water quality is not even fit for animal bathing, it's only fit for industrial cooling.

00:13If you look at the froth and there's also fumes, there's methane coming out of the river

00:17at various occasions.

00:19A completely dead river with no aquatic life, the coliform levels are actually high, there's

00:25hardly any dissolved oxygen in the river.

00:27All the parameters of a safe surface water, of a safe river, that goes for a toss when

00:32it comes to river Yamuna.

00:34The Yamuna is the main tributary to India's holy Ganges River.

00:39India's government has devoted billions of dollars to clean up the Ganges, which provides

00:43water to hundreds of millions of people.

00:46But critics say that political infighting has hampered those efforts.

00:50In November, thousands of people will bathe in the river for the Hindu festival of Chhat.

00:55Experts say entering the toxic water will pose serious health risks.

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