RIVER HEALTH ASSESSMENT OF GANGA BASIN IN INDIA: A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVEM.Z.M. NOMANI AND GHAZAL SALAHUDDINAbstract The Ganga basin has modest geographical and hydrographic attributes; it has a demographic distinction of being the largest populated river basin in the world. The Ganga as the Himalayan River has a total area of only 1.01 million km2 and supports a much higher population than the Yangtze Basin of China with an extent of 1.8 million km2. The ecology and spirituality of Ganga need a River health assessment (RHA). I t also requires River Health Indexing (RHI) for the catchment and command area, floodplain and channel preservation. The honing out of the RHA and RHI methodology and manual for the ecological and morphological rejuvenation and land use and riparian sustainability is only thematic nut timely in the context of Ganga River. Still, the biophysical entity Ganga sustains the variable fortunes of over 600 million persons in northern India and Bangladesh. The restoration strategy demands that prevention and control of the pollution and contamination from the industrial, municipal and domestic sources. The Amazon of Brazil, Congo in Africa, Mississippi-Missouri of the USA and Nile in Egypt drainage basins are more prominent but not so polluted on comparative basin study. |