Chhath returns to Yamuna’s banks amid pollution debate

The afternoon sun glints off the Yamuna at ITO ghat, scattering light across bamboo barricades and freshly raised sand embankments. Loudspeakers hum devotional songs as workers rush to set up tents and women in bright saris check the arrangements. Young men wade into the shallows to tie bamboo poles as dredging machines work on the riverbed.

- Snehil Sinha and Gargi Shukla

Preparations are underway in full steam for Chhath Puja. From Saturday, the riverbanks will be taken over by thousands of devotees marking a festival celebrates the Sun God and nature itself. But this year’s celebrations carry a different weight.

‘After a gap of four years, the Delhi government has reopened 17 ghats along the Yamuna for immersions and prayers, alongside 1,300 smaller sites across the city. Officials said the decision was prompted by improved river conditions and the release of fresh water from Haryana’s Hathnikund barrage, ensuring steady flows during the four-day festival.

But the move has also reopened a debate: whether the Yamuna is truly fit for people to take dips in, or whether the move risks public health and environmental progress.

Chhath Puja is celebrated by communities from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh — known better as Purvanchalis, who form a third of Delhi’s population. It involves fasting devotees offering “arghya,” or prayers, while standing in knee-deep water at sunrise and sunset. This year’s main rituals fall on October 27 and 28.

Significantly, the decision to reopen Yamuna ghats comes weeks before elections in Bihar.

Between 2021 and 2024, Chhath prayers were shifted to artificial ponds and water bodies across parks after disturbing images showed devotees standing in froth-covered, toxic Yamuna waters. Government studies and experts had warned of serious health hazards from continuous contact with the river. Experts also cautioned that ritual offerings, often accompanied by flowers, fruits, and plastic packaging, worsened pollution in river.

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