Shortly before sunset, thousands of devotees flocked to the Yamuna, the sacred river that runs through the Indian capital: women wrapped in ceremonial saris and men carrying huge baskets overflowing with offerings, bananas, candles, flowers, incense and sugar cane sticks. On Thursday, November 7, the Chhath Puja celebrations were held, an important Hindu festival of the Purvanchali community, originally from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, during which women, after a total fast of thirty-six hours, immerse themselves in the sacred river to pray to it. the sun god Surya.
But off the banks of the Yamuna, devotees found nets preventing access to the river and dozens of police were deployed to direct devotees to a specially designed pool. On the eve of the celebrations, the Delhi High Court had refused to revoke an order by the disaster management authority, dated October 29, 2021, banning Chhath Puja rituals (prayers, offerings to the rising and setting sun in the Yamuna) due to its excessive pollution. For several days now, its waters have been nothing more than a thick mass of white foam, formed by toxic discharges.
The Delhi government claims to have reserved 1,000 safe places to hold the ceremony. Despite this system and calls for caution from the courts, pilgrims in several places in the capital managed to reach the Yamuna and immerse themselves in the stinking cesspool. However, the judges implored the faithful not to bathe. “You have to understand that you are going to get sick!” », one of the magistrates had warned.
Layers of toxic foam
The Yamuna, which rises in the Yamunotri glacier, in Uttarakhand, in the Himalayas, and crosses seven states to empty into the Ganges, in Uttar Pradesh, is one of the most polluted in the world. It carries heavy metals, arsenic, chemicals and other fecal matter.
Every day, Delhi discharges millions of liters of sewage into the Yamuna, much of it untreated, to which industrial effluents are added, causing the presence of detergents and phosphate compounds that cause layers of toxic foam to form on the surface.
The sun god was hidden Thursday under a thick fog of fine particles. For a week now, the Indian capital and the entire north of the country, up to Pakistan, have been immersed in extreme pollution. The air quality index (AQI), around 400, reaches levels considered very dangerous for health. Hospitals see residents arrive breathless.
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