Jeremy Wade's Mighty Rivers - Full Episode 1 - The Ganges

I'm Jeremy Wade. For 35 years, I've been tracking down freshwater monsters.

That is a big fish.

But wherever I look, these apex predators are disappearing.

This is really remote. But even here, the big fish have gone.

For a biologist, that's a wakeup call, a sign that our rivers are in trouble.

To uncover what's going on, I'm heading to six of the planet's major waterways.

I need to mix with the people who live along [music] their banks and test the waters any way I can.

Yes.

My mission to find out if these mighty rivers really are past the point of no return.

By any measure, the Ganges is a mighty river. Tumbling off the highest

river. Tumbling off the highest mountains on Earth. It drops more than two vertical miles, then [music] snakes across most of North India before

pouring into the sea through the biggest delta on the planet.

I have to wonder though, is even this immense waterway [music] big enough to cope with what's being thrown at it? Recent reports describe a river that's overwhelmed by pollution,

disease, and even in some places, human corpses.

It's time to take a closer look.

And for this investigation, I'm going to start at [music] the mouth of the river, in a place I've never been.

For centuries, this part of the Ganges has been infamous for man-eaters.

[music] But I haven't come here to track down a mystery killer.

I'm here to find out if the Ganges itself really is dying.

The best way to gauge [music] the health of a river is to look at its wildlife, especially what's under the surface.

In search of clues, I'm heading to Gosha, a riverside town with a thriving fish market.

Very nice. You fry?

Yes.

Big old clam. It's carefully tied up so these pencils can't do anything.

Snake heads.

Business is brisk and I'm told the market is open seven days a week.

I've never actually seen a blade quite like this before. Normally people have knives in in their hands.

The thing about this part of the world, it is all about fish. Fish is so central to their lives. So if you got to see anything that's really really

specialized, I suppose it would be here.

Evidently, there's no shortage of fish.

But I'm starting to notice something odd.

Right. This this is this is very interesting. This is not native to here.

interesting. This is not native to here.

This is This is a pu. This is from the Amazon. They're very hardy. It is a very

Amazon. They're very hardy. It is a very good fish to cultivate. Is this one in the river or in ponds?

Okay. Right. So, they keep them in ponds.

I should be seeing things like stingrays, shrimps, and baramundi. Most

people though are selling exotic species.

So, what they call a pangas. It's a

catfish. Again, it's not native. I've

seen these in Thailand.

There's all sorts of stuff turning up here. There's quite a lot in the way of

here. There's quite a lot in the way of introduced fish, which they seem to be um farming. So, not caught from the

um farming. So, not caught from the wild, but actually farmed.

The more I look, the more aliens I find.

These ones are African.

Tilapia. These these are everywhere.

I'm right next to one of the biggest rivers in the world, but very few of the fish on offer are actually coming out of it.

What this is telling me, I'm not yet sure.

These are ponds that people have dug.

They're keeping fish in here. I don't

know if that's because it's just easier.

Why go out and and catch wild fish when you can domesticate them?

Farming fish makes perfect sense, but I'm concerned that the river might not be as healthy as it looks.

Excuse me. Have you got one minute? Are

you going fishing today?

Uh-huh. And what fish are you going after?

That's Baramundi, isn't it? Yeah. How

many people admi? Um,

admi? Um, five. So, five men. And how long? How

five. So, five men. And how long? How

many days?

About eight days. Okay. Eight days and five men sounds like a big investment, but I do wonder about the returns.

Are you expecting to catch a lot of fish and you go a long way just to get to the fishing grounds?

These guys now have to travel for a day or more.

It sounds far-fetched, but could this part [music] of the Ganges really be getting down to its last wild fish?

I'm going to see one of the oldest fishermen around here. [music] Henmouth

has lived off the water since he was a boy.

How much?

What would you say is the the health of the river? Is it harder for you now than

the river? Is it harder for you now than when you were younger to catch fish?

Penmouth [music] tells me he's caught huge stingrays and even sharks.

Have you seen anything that kind of size in recent years?

It's not just the giants that have gone.

Henmouth says that for years fishermen have used nets with a very small mesh which catch even the tiniest fish.

Think about a net like this. It catches

very small fish. And if you do that for any length of [music] time, there's nothing left to grow big.

The only place left to fish is deep in the jungle. But many who go never

the jungle. But many who go never return.

There's a legend here about a goddess called Bonobi.

She'll protect [music] you from tigers so long as you come with a pure heart and take only what you need to survive.

Although Henouth has retired, his son Harit still lives off the river to see for myself what it's like. I'm

going fishing with him.

It's quite claustrophobic when you come through the narrow bits.

When you look [music] into the undergrowth cuz it's dark and under the vegetation, you know, it's hard to see what's there.

People have been forced to come more into the jungle because the fish aren't providing a living now. So, it's all about mud crabs and this is where the mud crabs live. It's also where the tigers live

live. It's also where the tigers live and it's where the tigers take on average about one person a week.

These tidal waters once teamed with fish, including sharks.

But nowadays, the only big predators people talk about are tigers.

I'm used to being the hunter, not the hunted.

Here, just little.

More more this way.

Yeah, we've got just 4 hours. This is no place to be stranded by the falling tide.

For fishermen who live here, this is second nature and they're much more aware of the environment. But I'm I'm not. I'm having to totally pay attention

not. I'm having to totally pay attention here. And I'm not really watching my

here. And I'm not really watching my bag.

More more more tight like this. This.

Okay.

This is the first time I've fished for crabs.

There we go. First crab.

Harshett says that a few years ago you could haul 40 on a single trip.

Here's one.

Today you're lucky if you get more than a handful.

We got enough for a meal for us, but [music] uh this is hard fishing and for what looks like a really, really rich aquatic environment. It's pretty thin on

aquatic environment. It's pretty thin on the ground down there.

With the tide starting to turn, it's time to get out.

Just days ago, someone was killed by a tiger less than a mile from here.

I'm relieved to be in open water, but we're still too remote to get home for the night.

Um I can't imagine taking this gamble every day. And it's not just tigers. Harshett

day. And it's not just tigers. Harshett

says he was once robbed at gunpoint.

Your father was a fisherman. You're a

fisherman. Your sons, do you do you hope they will be fishermen?

People describe me sometimes as an extreme [music] fisherman, but doing this for a living, that's pretty extreme to me. And um

to me. And um the rest of the world never really hears about it.

This place where the Ganges meets the sea ought to be one of the richest aquatic environments anywhere on Earth.

But what I'm picking up is a sense of really dramatic change.

The big fish are hardly ever seen, if at all, and the [music] fishermen themselves are starting to disappear.

Those that can are turning their back on the water, but those who can't, for them the work is just getting harder and more dangerous. and for for smaller returns.

dangerous. and for for smaller returns.

Instead [music] of fishing for sizable fish, they're they're after crabs.

They're after things this size. That to

me is quite shocking.

The obvious remedy is to give nature a break.

But for many poor fishermen, stopping fishing is not an option.

Taking my [music] investigation up river, I leave the delta and head for the plains. [music]

the plains. [music] It's in these middle reaches where the Ganges is said to be under maximum pressure.

And it's not hard to [music] see why.

To find out how it's coping with tens of millions of people, I'm going to India's spiritual capital, the holy city of Vinasi.

Hindus believe that if your ashes are scattered on [music] the waters here, your soul will escape the endless cycle of reincarnation and suffering.

But alongside [music] stories of half burnt corpses, I've heard that the sheer number of [music] living people is more than the river can stand.

as well as worshippers. Veronasi is

packed with tourists.

But is the river really as sick as the headlines suggest?

I need to talk to someone who grew up here. And everyone I ask points me to

here. And everyone I ask points me to Mr. Sharma, a local barber.

Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Mr. Sharma has been cutting hair on this exact spot for 60 years. And I've been told there's little that escapes his notice.

What I'm slightly worried about here, I've got these very pointy scissors just an eighth of an inch from my nostril.

The thing is there's so many people here. All it needs is somebody to bump

here. All it needs is somebody to bump his elbow and I'm minus an eye. And uh

I'll be wearing dark glasses then.

I just wondering how much change there's been in the river change.

be more clean now.

So there are same that's interesting.

So the word on the street here is that the the river is actually in quite good shape. He's saying it's clean, but I'm

shape. He's saying it's clean, but I'm wondering if that is just in a superficial sense. I think I've got to

superficial sense. I think I've got to get out on the water and take a closer look.

I have to admit that the whole place looks a lot healthier than I expected.

The only floating [music] bodies I've seen are alive and well.

Supposedly, the Ganges has over 140 different kinds of fish. Many of them recorded from places like this in its middle reaches.

I don't actually see a fish. I've

located one. It's here. It's underneath

all this this weed. What I'm going to try and do is uh shepherd it into the bottle. You might even see the bottle as

bottle. You might even see the bottle as a bit of a sort of sanctuary.

I think it's in there.

Here it is. There's a little catfish.

That's quite amazing. I've seen quite a few down here, but they're small. Just

take the water out. They're stinging

catfish.

The sting is actually on the the pectoral spine here. It's this little fin here. Quite luxurant whiskers, tiny

fin here. Quite luxurant whiskers, tiny little eyes because catfish don't really rely on sight. It's good to see them here, but generally catfish don't need particularly clean water. And

they grow to about this big. They don't

grow huge, but uh anyway, I think it's time for this one to go back. Off you

go.

So quite a surprise. They're using this as habitat, as shelter. There's bits of broken stone and concrete down there, and the catfish are living underneath.

They're living in the cracks.

quite encouraged by that.

My optimism, however, is soon punctured.

Just along from me, two men appear to be releasing small catfish into the river.

Why? Why you put neck?

So, this is for for good luck. for

and much kah say market market so you buy from the market and then you come here and then you let go

so that was me thinking isn't it amazing you've got so many fish so close to people this is the reason it's nothing to do with it's not it's not exactly a healthy breeding population they're being bought in the shop and then they

come here and I wouldn't mind betting actually that there's other people you know knowing knowing what it's like here there's probably other people come along along with a bottle or whatever. They

catch them, take them back to the shop.

It's constant recycling.

At least the water looks reasonably clear. And with a remote controlled sub,

clear. And with a remote controlled sub, it should be possible to explore further.

It is possible to see something, so that's quite good.

Plastic bags caught up on things.

I'm just letting it sink slowly.

And it's full of junk. A lot of filth on the bottom fishing line. I probably want to keep

fishing line. I probably want to keep away from that.

I think I might be stuck.

That's well and truly wrapped up.

There's cord in there. There's a bit of net. I think in water which is as full

net. I think in water which is as full of stuff as this water here. This

unfortunately is of limited use.

Undeterred, I decide to check the quality of the water itself.

My container is primed with chemicals that will change color if there are unseen contaminants.

Pink means the river's clean. Anything

[music] else spells trouble.

For comparison, I'm testing [music] some mineral water.

This is a pure [music] water. This is

what water should look like.

This is the the Ganges water. What does

this mean? It [music] means fecal caulifform bacteria. Basically, the

caulifform bacteria. Basically, the water here is full of human waste.

My test is pretty crude, but I've heard there's a scientist here who monitors the precise amount of human waste and makes his findings public.

These are the latest readings from the river. This one, it's the fecal

river. This one, it's the fecal caulifform count. The gut bacteria,

caulifform count. The gut bacteria, human waste is where that comes from. If

you're going to drink it, you don't want any in there at all. If you're going to swim in it, you want it to be less than 500.

82,000. This is the big problem. And

there's nobody really aware of it.

To find out how all this human waste is entering the river and what effect it's having, I tracked down Professor Mishra, the man behind the figures. The problem

is discharge of raw seage into the river. You have all sorts of waterborn

river. You have all sorts of waterborn diseases. Cholera, jaundice, typhoid.

diseases. Cholera, jaundice, typhoid.

Misha says that every day up to 50,000 pilgrims bathe in Vonasi's waters.

Driven by their faith, they run the gauntlet of unseen microbes that cause dissentry, organ failure, and even death. Has there been any move at all to

death. Has there been any move at all to to improve the quality?

Our new government launched a program to clean the banks of the river. So they

look nice. But this is what we call cosmetic.

It appears to be beautiful looking nice.

But what is the reality?

Nothing has been done.

So you're saying it is a is a lack of will. In fact, I must say lack of

will. In fact, I must say lack of political willingness. The engineering

political willingness. The engineering solution is there. Funding is not a problem.

This matter could be resolved. But they

did nothing.

Directly we are being affected.

To point out that the Ganges is unclean is to many Hindus deeply offensive.

So when a holy man stops me and invites me to join him in the river, I'm in an awkward dilemma.

Rather than risk causing offense to anyone, I decide to take the plunge.

I follow you. Okay. What I'm going to do, I'm just going to attempt to do everything that that he does. Come on.

Mitia lives a life of religious devotion following a strict ritual every time he bathes.

Got no.

Okay.

Embar.

[music] I hadn't realized that a swim was also part of the deal.

It's actually quite refreshing, but I'm trying not to think of what I'm seeing around me, particularly floating on the surface and what I'm treading on. It

feels very soft and squishy.

He was actually taking a sip each time.

I might just uh touch it to my mouth. I

don't think I'm gonna sip this.

I'm actually feeling quite good. I really do feel refreshed and set up for the day.

Whether I get a dose of dissentry or worse remains to be seen.

I've scarcely dried off when I'm recognized by another holy man.

Yeah. Yeah.

Fish. Exactly.

I watched you on TV catching fish and I said, "Are there big fish here?" He goes, "No, small fish

fish here?" He goes, "No, small fish here.

When you were small, were there big fish here?" Yes, there were. Now, no, they've

here?" Yes, there were. Now, no, they've gone. They've gone. Big [music] fish

gone. They've gone. Big [music] fish have gone from here.

So far on the Ganges, I've barely seen a wild fish. And I can't imagine finding

wild fish. And I can't imagine finding any here where the water is full of raw sewage.

On the edge of town, though, someone who looks like he might be a fisherman waves me over.

much easier.

Yeah.

Okay.

Is it okay here? It's okay.

Fish sometimes use morowed boats for cover, but finding anything here is surely wishful thinking.

Within minutes though, he totally defies my expectations.

10 fish.

Looking at these fish, you would say the Ganges has got to be pretty healthy. But

nine of these 10 fish are tilapia.

That's not a native species. It seems

that tilapia are very well established here. And that is probably at the

here. And that is probably at the expense of native species.

Like catfish, this hardy African species can tolerate dirty water with low oxygen levels.

What would make me more optimistic would be to see some more native species, some native roou cutler, that type of thing.

It wasn't long ago that large fish roamed the length of this river, and I'm curious to know if anyone remembers them.

This is pictures of me with fish, so hopefully it establishes a little bit of pride for for me.

No, no, no.

Well, I've just shown him a picture of a maria not here. So, I'm going to show him another picture. I won't say what it is. Yeah.

is. Yeah.

Yes.

He says his father used to catch g, but that over fishing is not the reason they've gone.

Gushing straight into the river from countless sewage outlets like this one.

Untreated human waste is by far the biggest source of pollution in the Ganges.

as well as harming people. It's a major culprit in the demise of native fish.

There's quite a smell um in the air and that's probably methane.

As bacteria break down the raw sewage, they use up so much of the water's oxygen that all but the toughest fish die off.

Not very pleasant.

I wouldn't want to fish this foul smelling water, but it seems some people don't have a choice.

There's a guy actually up at the outlet with a thrown net, which seems a little bit crazy. So, going to have a word with

bit crazy. So, going to have a word with him.

Good to know you.

No fish.

This is someone who is very highly motivated to catch fish. When you bring that net in, you are covering yourself with very nasty water. It's all over your clothes. It's all over you.

your clothes. It's all over you.

This is precisely the kind of place that fish like. You've got a bit of an eddy.

fish like. You've got a bit of an eddy.

This is the kind of place that food settles in naturally. But the reason you've got that eddy is because this is one of the waste outlets from the city.

I think I would draw the line at fishing in a place like this.

The man tells me he spent most of the morning trying to catch [music] a meal.

Oh, this is a tilapia.

This small specimen is the biggest fish in [music] his meager hall.

3 hours here for two small fish. Is

there much work that's harder than that?

I don't think so.

Until the sewage problem gets sorted out, huge stretches of the Ganges will continue to suffocate.

In the meantime, though, I've heard that a few ingenious locals have found a new way to fish.

And I'm told they're not after Tilapia.

Just half a mile from the sewage outflow, the river is a hive of activity.

And my guide Manage says there's good money to be made so long as you know where to go. Fishing near the bridge makes sense to me because the actual

pillar of the bridge causes turbulence on the downstream side. So, it's a it's a natural place for fish to tuck in.

Food will settle there. So, if I was fishing, I would be immediately downstream of the pillow.

On the other hand, nobody here has anything I recognize as fishing tackle.

Normally, I look at people's gear and I can understand what's going on as a hook, as a weight, as a net or whatever.

I can I can see how it works, but I have to say I'm quite mystified. There's

basically a load of heavy weights and there's a certain amount of sort of mud and sediment on those. So, I'm guessing that drags along the bottom. Are we

knocking the fish out with those lumps of metal? I I really don't know.

of metal? I I really don't know.

So nothing else could all hook. No. No. No hooks. Net. No.

hook. No. No. No hooks. Net. No.

No. No.

I don't know. I'm beused.

[music] I'm seeing bright silvery things.

[music] Ah, now I get it. That is genius. We've

got some money.

Five six seven.

There we go. That's what this is about.

Who's a magnet? He does fish. But

instead of instead of catching fish and then selling the fish, you just fish for the money directly.

Manoj explains that pilgrims on their way to Vonasi throw coins from the train as an offering to their river.

He says that on a good day he can make more than a medical intern at the local hospital.

But Vinasi's coin fishes can't hide the fact that the river is sick.

And I'm aware that further upstream, the Ganges is soaking up more than just sewage.

Leaving the holy city, I head to a place where few tourists care to go, the industrial city of Kpur.

I've hired a driver to show me around because I've heard that this [music] place has some of the river's worst polluters.

This is the tannery district.

I'm seeing loads of skins load more here.

There are several hundred tanneries here. We've seen piles of hides about 6t

here. We've seen piles of hides about 6t high.

Kpur's leather industry is worth around $12 billion a year.

But it seems that many of the tanneries are dumping toxic chemicals, mainly chromium, lead, and [music] arsenic, pretty much straight into the Ganges.

I smelled this before I saw it. This

water is black. And in fact, I say water. I mean,

water. I mean, how much of that is actually water?

Oh, just gets really bad when you're close. It's got that methaney smell of

close. It's got that methaney smell of sewage, but there's something else here as well which really gets you in the back of the throat. It's the smell is so

strong. It's actually it's a taste

strong. It's actually it's a taste considered holy by millions of Hindus.

Gangji's water sells on the internet for around $70 a gallon.

Among other things, this precious stuff is supposed to heal the sick.

I think I need to follow this upstream.

On my way back into town, I ask a man running a tea shop about the quality of the water.

As well as attacking skin and eyes, chromium in particular is known to cause lung cancer.

It's no wonder this man brews his tea with water from a well, not the faucet.

But maybe there's hope. I've heard about a man who's actually trying to clean up the leather industry. Before

I find him though, I come across more dirty water flowing out of Kpur.

This is all on its way down towards the river, apart from some of it, which is taken off into irrigation canals heading towards farmland.

If the water's as toxic as it looks, I wouldn't want to eat anything grown in these fields.

Back in town, I meet up with Rakesh Jazal, the man who's taking on the tanneries.

The bluish color means it contains chromium.

How does it make you feel just looking at this?

It's disgusting. On one hand, we wash it the river.

On the other hand, we make it filthy.

None of this is treated. It just goes straight into the river.

Yeah. This is coming directly from the times. It's a cocktail of deadly

times. It's a cocktail of deadly chemicals.

Why are people not marching on the streets and saying this is unacceptable?

We have to do something. I don't

understand. That's a big puzzle for me as well.

Almost single-handedly, Rakkesh has forced 127 polluting tanneries to shut down. But at least as many are still

down. But at least as many are still operating. I am not satisfied. The

operating. I am not satisfied. The

amount of waste water is going up every day.

Here we can see the pollution. We can

smell it. But for few kilometers from Concord, it dissolves and disappears.

It becomes invisible.

Every day, more than 50 million gallons of industrial waste are illegally dumped into the Ganges.

But when most of it dissolves out of sight, how can you hope to catch the [music] culprits?

Enter two enterprising scientists.

Professor Rajie Singha and his student Dro Saka are determined to bring the polluters to [music] justice. Normally,

if you want to find what's hidden in the water, what you do is you take a jar of that water, back to the lab, look at it under the microscope, do do other sophisticated tests on it. What these

scientists are telling me is that you can also get very good information if you go a long way up in the air and you film the water with special cameras.

Rajie and Dro have agreed to give me a sneak preview of their new system.

I'm I'm seeing the river. So presumably

the cameras are are picking it up.

Our super sensitive hyperspectral cameras can detect [music] the chemical signatures of different pollutants.

Climbing a little bit further. We're at

1200 ft.

To the naked eye, the river looks perfectly clean. But within seconds, our

perfectly clean. But within seconds, our specialized cameras see something suspicious. Ah,

suspicious. Ah, there's something coming out.

Losing no time, Dipro decides that whatever the cameras have picked up calls for closer inspection.

This is a normal image from the naked eye. We can't see the pollution. It just

eye. We can't see the pollution. It just

disappears. But just check on this.

Ah, that is so dramatic. In Deep Row's enhanced image, the pollution and where it's coming from are both clearly visible.

Water pollution normally in a very short distance, you can't see it anymore. So,

it's out of mind.

Absolutely. Tracking pollution to its source. That's the critical point here.

source. That's the critical point here.

With this whole technologies, you have a visual evidence and that kind of evidence is very hard to deny by anyone.

You can actually point out that this is the canary which is creating the pollution. So, it's real precisionless,

pollution. So, it's real precisionless, isn't it?

The cameras work just as well at night.

So, it's going to be hard for the polluters to hide.

We know that [music] the technique works in terms of detecting pollution, and that can actually be applied anywhere in the world. This is definitely a game

the world. This is definitely a game changer.

Innovators and doers are exactly what the Ganges needs if it's ever going to run clean again.

For me though, the best sign of a river's health is its wildlife. And so

far, no part of this river has been fit to fish.

To find life below the surface, my best hope [music] is to leave the densely populated plains and escape to the mountains.

Even up here though, I've got reason to be nervous about what I'll discover.

For decades, poachers [music] have been using pesticides and dynamite to strip this river of its fish.

[music] One of the few places left untouched is a deep pool at the base of a cliff, protected because it's next to a Hindu shrine.

I'm anxious to see if this pool still has any fish, but access to the [music] water is at the discretion of the temple priest.

Certain animals, fish included, are regarded by Hindus as the earthly embodiment of powerful gods.

But with the priest's blessing, I'm granted special permission.

Not to fish, but to send down my remote controlled sub.

I'm just dipping down to the riverbed.

This is how a riverbed should look.

[music] That's sand and boulder. There's

no plastic.

13 ft. And that's something right came right in front of the camera there. And

some [music] more. Some more. There we

go.

A shaw of native sucker fish is a good sign.

But just around the corner, there's something much [music] bigger.

Oh, there's his eye. There's his eye.

If I'm not mistaken, I've just run into an old acquaintance.

That's a goch. That's a goch tail.

That's a goch tail with several of these sucker fish around it.

Goch can be notoriously hard to catch.

And there's another goch. There's three.

There's three wedged in. No, there's

not. There's four.

Over 35 years, I've only caught a dozen.

And here are four of them right in front of me.

This is probably 50 or 60.

Seeing top predators [music] is encouraging.

It means there must be plenty of smaller fish too.

But this is just one tiny pool in a largely unprotected river.

Even up in the mountains, most of it is [music] a free-for-all.

Not far from the shrine, though, is a place where fishing might actually be part of [music] the solution.

A small company has bought exclusive rights to a two-mile stretch of river.

Reckoning that its fish are worth more alive than dead.

Having paid for a fishing permit, I'm anxious to know if one species in particular is still here.

[music] I first came to India in my mid20s [music] because I wanted to catch a fish called the maria, the most iconic fish of the Ganges.

I thought that was just going to be a one-off trip before embarking on a normal career, but didn't work out that way at all.

35 years later, my quest has changed a bit.

I'm here now with a question. Are those

fish still here?

Like other kinds of carp, the maria is an omnivore.

When I used to fish for carp, I used to um concoct all sorts of baits. Like one

way to test them was by seeing if I like them.

This is millet flour that's been made into a paste and then boiled. So that's

quite a hard bait.

It's a bit bland. [music] Here we are, the land of strong spices. This is quite a a mild taste. It's a bit like

sort of porridge or something like that.

So, that's the the bait ready.

This short stretch of river is a world apart from the main channel.

People talk often about the restorative power of of water.

There is something about water. It's not

just vital for our physical biological health.

We need it for our mental well-being.

Clean water, it does lift the spirits.

It's hard to believe that this is the same river as the one that flows through Kur downstream. It is a dead river in so

Kur downstream. It is a dead river in so many places and that and that just shouldn't be acceptable.

This is the Ganges as it should be.

[music] But as evening draws in, I start to wonder if the Maria will remain just a [music] distant memory.

[music] Yes, it's running.

[music] There it is. There it is. There it is.

There it is.

See the fish?

Yeah, [music] it's a nice fish. It's a

nice fish.

We have it.

[music] Let's get a proper look at this.

Wow.

That has to be a good £25.

And it's like a bar of gold. I mean just what a beautiful fish as well.

And this isn't just any fish. This is

the iconic fish of the Ganges.

Here it is. The health of this bit of river embodied in this one fish.

[music] It symbolizes possibility. It symbolizes

hope.

[music] Amazing fish.

It seems that a big river can take a lot of abuse, but eventually you reach the point [music] where it dies.

How close to that point [music] is the Ganges?

In spite of everything I've seen, finding its two biggest predatory fish, the gch and the maria, gives me some

hope that it's not yet too late.

[music] Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat.

Heat up [music] here.