Dehradun: A video showing a cow’s corpse and piles of garbage lying on the banks of the gushing Ganga river in Uttarkashi started being shared widely on social media on Monday rasing questions on the Namami Gange project’s execution in Uttarakhand, and whether the river was being cleaned at all as is being claimed. It also posed questions on steps being taken to protect stray cows by the state government which incidentally on Monday at a cabinet meeting decided to pass a resolution proposing the naming of cow as the national animal.The video, shot by activist Mayank Arya, had been watched over 6,000 times and evoked strong comments on the state the holy river has been subjected to. “My idea was to bring the on-ground truth and the lack of sensitivity about environmental issues to the fore,” Arya told TOI. He added that “the huge pile of waste including the cow’s corpse lying on the river bank at the Tekla Mahidanda Road barely 100 km from Gangotri exposes the government’s claims that the Ganga is being kept clean.”Pointing out that the system of civic waste disposal in the hills had not yet evolved, Arya said, “The river is often used as a dumping site for waste including plastic and polythene but finding a cow corpse there was terrible.”When queried, Namami Gange (Uttarakhand) CEO Raghav Langer said, “I do not have information about this particular incident but I would definitely flag the matter to the district administration so that they are able to take urgent steps.”Meanwhile, the district magistrate of Uttarkashi Ashish Chauhan said that the dumping sites in the district are marked. “I do not know which spot is shown in the video. If details are shared, we will take necessary action for sure.”By Monday evening though, the district administration officials had removed the garbage dump and corpse from near the Ganga. Hemant Verma, SDM Uttarkashi, told TOI, “After taking note of the video, all the garbage as well as the corpse was removed from the spot. Local residents, too, have been warned to dump garbage at the designated sites only.”

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