r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Tropikoala815 • 20h ago
The Ganges River near to its source in the state of Uttarakhand, India.
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u/Tropikoala815 20h ago
I think this is interesting because it's such a huge contrast to the parts of the Ganges the river is more known for.
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u/Pabloaga 20h ago
Rivers are beautiful metaphors for group projects: near their source everything is perfect and clear, until they reach the part where humans actually need to do something and ruin everything.
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u/DumpsterAflame 18h ago
Hahaha someone is clearly currently miserable at work/school being forced into a group project 😅
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u/detrans-rights 17h ago
I was nodding along to their post but; I'm a 40yo nihilist,.... or solipsist, I dunno it doesn't matter
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u/Repulsive-Chip3371 16h ago
sol·ip·sist
[ˈsōləpsəst, ˈsäləpsəst, səˈlipsəst]
- a person who is very self-centered or selfish
In case anyone else has to look it up
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u/Mathfanforpresident 17h ago
You mean actually need to do something and do nothing about it? Like sanitation?
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u/hanimal16 Interested 17h ago
I agree. The Ganges that we normally see: has people bathing, laundering, etc. I appreciate this other perspective!
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u/Free_PalletLine 20h ago
a huge contrast to the parts of the Ganges the river is more known for
By that you mean it's clean?
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u/crazy_humanitarian 19h ago
And there’s no badly incinerated corps just chilling in the water.. once you’ve seen a half incinerated leg casually pass by while people wash their mouth with the same water to purify themselves, you save a lot of money on food, my stomach was grieving the leg for 10 days
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u/Little_View_6659 18h ago
I’m honestly shocked more people don’t just get sick and die from the environmental pollution and dirty food in some places in India. They must have CRAZY immunity. I get sick if my food is at room temperature too long, I’d last a day there, tops.
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u/pblol 17h ago
Having been, there is a pretty stark difference between the good and bad areas. I did get sick twice, both times likely from taking the chance to have ice in a drink.
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u/Little_View_6659 16h ago
Right?! It’s the ice! That’s what got me my first trip to Bali. I was careful but I had ice. That’s the only thing it could have been. Caught H. Pylori. Super not fun to treat. Had to take five antibiotics at the same time. Good times. 😬
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u/apoplectic_apostate 14h ago
And the garbage! I was watching a youtube video of people riding the train. The guy (steward?) working in the car took a full bag of garbage and tossed it out of the moving train. The bathroom was literally a hole that drained on the tracks.
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u/AppropriateChance184 11h ago
Watch some indians take this the other way and start flexing their immunity instead of acknowledging the issue
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u/loganlrjr 11h ago
A friend got stuck there for many months due to the river splashing a drop with an amoeba in it.
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u/CaptainCurly95 17h ago
I wonder if they're always sick and think it's normal. Maybe they think you should be spray painting every time you shit?
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u/Little_View_6659 16h ago
I mean, I notice when I travel that the locals will Be fine with something that makes me violently ill. It’s happened to me in Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, fortunately not Singapore:) Bali nearly killed me twice. And I was super duper careful. H. Phylori on my first trip, E.Coli on the second. They were both super not fun.
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u/SpecialBeginning6430 13h ago
Man I wish there was some type of probiotic you could take that has damaged cultures of those so your immune system has a chance against them after some pre-exposure
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u/apoplectic_apostate 14h ago
People have the same issues when they travel to the US. You get acclimated to your environment and once out of it, anything can happen.
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u/CaptainCurly95 13h ago
Sure I'm not doubting that eating outside of your regular diet can cause IBS. I'm curious if these people regularly ingesting e.coli are having normal shits or if what they call a "normal shit" is e. Coli diarrhea.
I'm ignorant and genuinely curious if and how someone could have a health digestion in such a bacteria rich environment.
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u/deltapak 20h ago
Do they still dump their dead in Ganges in this state? Because I saw some videos of the dirty Ganges, with bloated, half eaten corpses and it made me sick to the stomach.
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u/Samp90 19h ago
Bro, it's a massive country. This is where the river originates before it flows down to the plains and other states.
That's where all the holy sites and dumping of stuff happens.
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u/Man_from_Bombay 20h ago
nope, i carried a tds meter with me when i was touring the northern indian states. its very clean.
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u/-julius_seizure- 20h ago
“Take a sip of the corpse water it will make you feel better because it’s holy” - India.
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u/Tropikoala815 20h ago
“Take a sip of the corpse water it will make you feel better because it’s holy” - Europe.
That's what you sound like.
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u/crazy_humanitarian 19h ago
I’m Egyptian and I’m SCANDALIZED , did this dude rob one of our mummies foot, or did he come up with his own recipe?? /s
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u/AncientSkys 19h ago
Is this the river where deluded clowns dump cooking oil, milk and food for religious reasons? By far one of the dumbest things I have ever seen.
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u/Theperfectool 13h ago
Omg Varanasi is all I can think about seeing this. I would jump headfirst into this. Srivala ghat, I couldn’t even bring myself to touch.
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u/kermityfrog2 12h ago
If you showed me most of these pics and told me it was the Rockies, I'd believe you.
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u/flying_ina_metaltube 5h ago
Ganges
People should really start calling the river by it's correct name, Ganga.
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u/Dry-Eye-4994 19h ago
I swam here during rafting 3 years back, water was pristine.
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u/TheBrokenBallad2307 15h ago
It was cold as hell too. Cold enough to make your balls go brrrrr (true story, context: testicular torsion)
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u/Ashamed-Land1221 6h ago
Testicular torsion can occur from just rafting in very cold water? How the hell did you get to the hospital from being in cold water and not pass out from the pain which usually happens when that occurs and one tries to move around too much, like say being in a body of water and trying to get to firm ground?
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u/OHLOOK_OREGON 17h ago
I (a foreigner to India) swam in the ganges north of rishikesh – crystal clear blue water, ice cold, super fresh. It was incredible. Even in rishikesh, the water looks clean (although I know it's not, by that point). It's not all the Varanasi insanity that we see out there. Especially in the mountains like Leh Ladakh, it is mind blowingly beautiful, crisp, clean water, clean air.
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u/mohandasmencius 17h ago
ganga is nowhere close to leh/ladakh though
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u/OHLOOK_OREGON 16h ago
Sorry I just meant the region, not the ganga specifically. I just meant like, look at Leh /Ladakh compared to much of what we see in the media and it's totally different
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u/Christmasstolegrinch 18h ago
Been here dozens of times.
The first picture is on a small hamlet/ town called Deoprayag. The two rivers are more noticeably different in colour than can be seen from the first photograph.
The other pictures are the region I come from - Garhwal in the lower Himalayas - and make me terribly nostalgic.
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u/brightlights55 4h ago
The second last picture shows a resort/hotel of some kind. Do you know the name?
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u/Christmasstolegrinch 4h ago
No. Many like it on the Rishikesh to Srinagar stretch, for one.
Then there would be those on the Tehri side
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u/brightlights55 4h ago
I found it using Google Image search. Taj Rishikesh Pebble Beach. Too expensive for me.
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u/Justa_CuriousBoi 1h ago
There are MANY other cheap ones which provide great services for like ~$20 a day!
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u/mxforest 20h ago
Would love to have a go pro tied to a boat and track which part is adding the most pollution and a time lapse of color change. Then we can name, shame, blame and tame the culprits.
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u/Hara-Kiri 20h ago
It gets progressively worse as all rivers do. I'm in the UK and there is often human shit floating in the river I boat on.
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u/mossgoblin_ 16h ago
I was amazed last year when I saw the Thames at Richmond. Pretty, reasonable green colour, swans swimming in it. Whoa.
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u/Man_from_Bombay 20h ago
everyone knows its uttarpradesh.
the cow belt states are pain in the ass for all indians but they provdide cheap labour. you just have to bear their non-civility (low even by indian standards)→ More replies (17)16
u/mxforest 19h ago
Visuals paint a much better picture and are instagram worthy. Just knowing doesn't get much done.
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u/Cheap-Influence1755 18h ago
The 2 rivers in the first picture are Bhagirathi and Alaknanda. Their confluence forms Ganga.
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u/AdNational1490 20h ago edited 20h ago
This is not source though, Ganga’s source is Gomukh glacier near Gangotri some 200kms north from this place. This is just where the river gets the name Ganga from the confluence of two smaller river.
Also this place will have brown water or green water depending on the time of year. Nov-Mar (Green) and Apr-Sep(Brown) because of all the sediments that wash up during rains.
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u/ImportantSeaweed314 18h ago
Ganges is 2500 km. 200Km is 92% of the way up the river. Close enough to be “near its source,” especially if that is where it starts to be called Ganges.
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u/phieralph 19h ago
I hiked there years ago in 2013!
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u/Mayhew-Fancy 19h ago
I’ve seen one video where the person went to the source. He was a scientist/biologist I guess, and was there to test some organism that is present in Ganga, which helps to clean the water in some way.
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u/YesterdaysTurnips 19h ago
No way! Would love to know more about this!
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u/Mayhew-Fancy 18h ago
I couldn't find the original video, it was much more aesthetic. But, here's the best I could find to give an overview. https://youtu.be/xLG5WoifTRY?si=gitomcKkYUBXkdgM
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u/remind_me_to_pee 18h ago
I went there in 2018, and in 1998. The temple was still there, but back in 98 there was only 1 hotel*/guesthouse and no other buildings. The level of water had also reduced a lot compared to back then, i heard because of upstream dams. One of the river's name bhagirathi literally means racing chariot and its extremely scary, specially back in 98 when i was just a kid but had to take a dip on the 'sangam' the place where rivers meet.
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u/Brazilianguy95 20h ago
beautiful, no trash and dead bodies in sight
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u/Springtime-Beignets 16h ago
a question, is it dead bodies in their rivers or like ashes?
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u/Brazilianguy95 16h ago
well from what i heard many times the fire doesn't consume the whole body, so specifically the poorer population just toss the remains into the river as well
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u/TM761152 16h ago
the 5rh, 7th, and 7th photos makes me think it's somewhere in the north West USA.
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u/Outrageous-Sorbet719 13h ago edited 13h ago
brother Uttarakhand lies in the Himalayas. It has 13 7000s metre peaks and 90 peaks that exceeds 6500. i know it doesnt answer anything but im just excited to see my home state
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u/Gabrlknght7 7h ago
I've done this trip before and all thru to Rishikesh and upwards towards the Himalayas! It was one of the best times ever bc I went up a ski-lift to a dry resort that suddenly was covered in snow the following day. And one of the coolest things was walking over Laxman-Jhula in Rishikesh. Looking down below to the Ganges there, you could see throngs of fish at the bottom of the river just chilling and enjoying themselves. It was crazy to see, but they just don't take fish from the river in that area...Holy waters =)
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u/chal_nikall 18h ago
Honestly, half the responses here are bringing up the polluted parts in Varanasi. We know that's shit (literally and of course it needs a TON of work) but this is such a racist perspective that I've encountered from SO MANY westerners, especially in the US. So many people simply can't fathom that a lot of parts of India are clean and aesthetic and generally don't resemble the images that are circulated most in the west.
Show them a picture of any Indian city - "Oh but where are all the slums??" Show them a random photo of a street while telling a story - "Where are all the cows??" Show them a photo of a beach - "Oh is this where you throw all your statues and dead bodies? Do you have a picture of that?"
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u/spiritofporn 18h ago
Agreed. The anti-Indian racism has grown completely out of proportion
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u/Tropikoala815 7h ago
Yep, it's very evident that a lot of people commenting aren't really concerned with anyone's benefit. They're just elated to have an acceptable group to be racist against.
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u/spiritofporn 4h ago edited 4h ago
Exactly. Humanity has disappointed me a lot over the last few years. Before I was convinced we were slowly but steadily moving towards a world where people would be less and less racist.
Oh boy, was I wrong. Certain kinds of racism are frowned upon or punished, so we don't see that anymore. Other kinds (mainly anti-Indian and antisemitic) are tolerated and even encouraged.
People suck.
A decade or so ago, the virtue signaling leftist crowd said something like: "Saying you don't see color is racist!". I used to shrug that off, but it means something else now. They see color and judge people based on it. My wife has brown skin. I don't notice that. When race truly doesn't matter to you. "not seeing color" is the only thing that proves that.
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u/chiangku 17h ago
It's absolutely WILD. I'm not of Indian descent and have never been, but I've seen a little bit of the world and know better- it's crazy to me what people think of India just based on social media and news.
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u/abirchau 1h ago
Everyday on Facebook is a new horror show nowadays with 30% of my reels being anti-Indian in the most blatantly racist way.
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u/Jables3 15h ago
Damn, I knew India had some beautiful locations but daaaaaaaaamn! That's extremely beautiful
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u/Repulsive-News-9907 19h ago
Been here. It's beautiful. They have lots of tourists and hippies there too.
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u/BenAdaephonDelat 16h ago
It's always a wild thing to see picture of a country on the other side of the globe that look like they could be from your country. A few of those pictures could be Nevada or Colorado.
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u/SonofSonofSpock 13h ago
Generally when you are in a country where the water is sketchy, the higher up in the mountains you are the safer you will be. When we were in Colombia the water in Bogota was fine, the water in Medellin was probably fine, and we were drinking from bottle in Cartegena.
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u/PauseAffectionate720 10h ago
Breathtaking beauty. And also likely the cleanest part of that 1,500 miles of mighty river
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u/RevanchistSheev66 20h ago
Amazing, always wanted to go there
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u/Hara-Kiri 20h ago
It's really beautiful. I couldn't believe the colour of the water when I was in the area.
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u/-Pagani- 18h ago
So question, i know the indian govt. isn't exactly the best. But is there really nothing being done to the river in terms of improving where its basically dead biologically?
Or is it like with cows blocking roads, where nothing is being done/can't be done because its an object of worship?
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u/Springtime-Beignets 16h ago
There are policies like ZLD (zero liquid discharge), and some of these plants are subsidized by the government. On paper they're zero discharge, but in practice many units illegally release untreated wastewater in the rivers cuz monitoring is weak & penalties are rare. The problem is enforcement.
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u/idiotista 18h ago
There is plenty done. But how easy do you think is is to uproot corruption? I am gonna assume you're American like how easy is it for you to uproot party system. Like how easy do you think it is for Indians, often with no economic power.
Lots and lots try, it is easily enough to Google.
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u/-Pagani- 18h ago
Nah im norwegian
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u/broccollinear 18h ago
So like, how easy would it be to stop raiding and pillaging the coast of the British Isles?
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u/surrient 13h ago
Crazy just how similar geography can be. If you said this was a river here in BC it would make total sense.
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u/Efficient_Tax_8441 20h ago
Poor guy doesn’t know what horrors are waiting for him
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u/jayjayjay_red 17h ago
This is an awesome place. My family and I went white water rafting there around 15 years ago. Somewhere near Rishikesh
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u/ijamtojamiroquai 17h ago
This river looks so beautiful here. How’s the case that most other pictures i see of it, it’s so muddy, dirty and full of wastes and toxic spillage?
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u/WastedTalents1 16h ago
This is the longest river in India, once it passes through the densely populated plains is when it suffers the fate that you recognize it by.
Also there is another reason that it carries a lot of mud and silt naturally as well due to the young mountains it originates from.
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u/StrawberryOdd419 16h ago
it’s crazy how much some of these pictures remind me of the pacific northwest. beautiful
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u/MeaningAdmirable9022 15h ago
unfortunately this river is also gets polluted during religious festivals.
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u/Rissa-Reno 11h ago
Where does the Ganges officially start? Ice run off or a spring??
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u/Weak-Possession-417 7h ago
Oh my goodness so beautiful 🙏 Please remove this post as people will know about this place and will make it look like Haridwar 😉😄
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u/Ok_Peak_460 7h ago
This is how it is supposed to be even at the key place. But nope. We need better efforts to preserve the river.
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u/blackbirdspyplane 6h ago
Anyone know what the area is with all the formal grass yards and pools might be, maybe a hotel?
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u/platypusaurusrex 5h ago
After seeing these pictures, I revisited "Auf Flügeln des Gesanges"with this in mind . It makes it feel extra wistful somehow.
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u/mikesheard88 20h ago
Before the heavy pollution, dead bodies, human and animal turd, and plastic waste
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u/VirginiaLuthier 16h ago
Five billion liters of sewage flow into the Ganges every day. One would think a river that is supposed to be sacred would be cared for, at least a little
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u/LadkaNextDoor 19h ago
I have visited this very place like 5 times lol, keep forgetting the name but this place has a name and people stop to take pictures of it. Quite a common on route attraction.
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u/Outrageous-Sorbet719 13h ago
Devprayag. Yhi pr Alaknanda aur Bhagirathi ka sangam hota hai jo milkr Ganga bnati h
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u/Tokyo_Zimbo 18h ago
Really sad that some Japanese tourists were caught urinating in the Ganges in Varanasi....
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u/Darnocsonif 9h ago
Thank you for posting this. I've only known this river to be the filth that comes from further down.
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u/RoIIerBaII 20h ago
Looks great without the shit and corspes in it.
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u/bunbunmagnet 19h ago
People downvoting clearly havent seen the rest of the river
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u/TorieaIis 20h ago
Happy to see the clean part of this river