People Living Along Ganga River More Prone To Cancer

A recent study conducted by National Cancer Registry Programme under the Indian Council of Medical Research revealed that people living along the banks of Ganga River in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal are more prone to cancer than anywhere else in India. Industries along the river have been releasing harmful effluents into the river such as arsenic, choride, fluoride and other heavy metals.

Times of Indiareports 

Conducted by the National Cancer Registry Programme under the Indian Council of Medical Research, the study throws up shocking findings. The river is thick with heavy metals and lethal chemicals that cause cancer, it says. "We know that the incidence of cancer was highest in the country in areas drained by the Ganga. We also know why. Now, we are going deeper into the problem. Hopefully, we'll be able to present a report to the health ministry in a month or two," NCRP head A Nandkumar said.

The worst-hit stretches are east Uttar Pradesh, the flood plains of Bengal and Bihar. Cancer of the gall bladder, kidneys, food pipe, prostate, liver, kidneys, urinary bladder and skin are common in these parts. These cases are more frequently found here than elsewhere in India, the study says.

Gall bladder cancer cases along the course of the Ganga are the second highest in the world and prostate cancer highest in the country. 

Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar's Vaishali and rural Patna and the extensive tract between Murshidabad and South 24-Parganas in West Bengal are the hot zones. In these parts, of every 1 lakh people surveyed, 20-25 were cancer patients. This is a national high. Relentless discharge of pollutants into the riverbed is responsible.