In a time when challenging the government could cause reaction, Dhruv Rathee has created a niche as a brave truth-teller. With more than 15 million members, Rathee’s investigative reporting has turned into a ray of hope for people looking for responsibility.
Not exception is his most recent video on the Mahakumbh 2025 and the shockingly high Ganga River pollution levels.
It reveals a terrible reality: neglect, corruption, and bad policies have turned the river—which millions of people consider to be a holy entity—into a poisonous stream.
Rathee’s work challenges the mass out of complacency, not alone presents facts. This time, he closes the curtains on how the government has misled the people, letting crores of followers wash in severely contaminated rivers under the pretense of holiness.
His film demands change, not only highlights a problem; why, he is among the most brave voices of our day.
The Grand illusion: a polluted Ganga at Mahakumbh 2025
Over 50 ,000,000 people attend the Mahakumbh Mela, the biggest religious event in the world, to perform a holy plunge in the Ganga and Yamuna at Prayagraj। Hindu views hold that this deed releases one of sins and brings spiritual emancipation.
Rathee discovers, though, a sinister reality: the water was a poisonous mix of toxins, far from holy.
The film shows official government body Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) damning proof.
Rathee supports his assertions with hard statistics, therefore demonstrating that the authorities enabled millions to wash in water that was not even safe for touching, let alone drinking. Rathee does not rely on conjecture.
A gauge of water quality, the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) for drinking water should ideally be 0 mg per liter and for bathing water should be less than 3 mg per lititer.
Rathee reveals, though, that the BOD level in Sangam—where the Ganga meets the Yamuna—was 3.04 mg per lititer on January 13, 2025. By January 16, it had surged to 5.09 milligrams per liter, almost exactly twice the recommended limit.
More startling was the presence of fecal colium bacteria, a marker of human and animal waste. Although the recommended safe limit for bathing is 2,500 MPN per 100 ml, at Sangam the level exceeded shockingly 49,000 MPN—20 times more than what is regarded safe.
These numbers tell a picture of extreme neglect, not just statistics. Devotees who thought they were performing a holy deed were really running the risk of contracting fatal infections.
A Government caught in its own falsehoods
The fact that the government knew the pollution levels but yet let the event go forward without warning the public makes this revelation much more alarming.
Rathee emphasizes how the administration sought to hide the situation by means of synthetic dilution of the pollutants. Before the Mahakumbh, freshwater was dumped into the Ganga not to really clean it but rather to momentarily lower pollution levels. Millions were misled by this dishonest approach to believe the river was pristine.
Moreover, the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) was discovered red-handed providing the National Green Tribunal (NGT) with antiquated water samples in order to distort the water quality.
The tribunal openly chastised the administration on February 20, 2025 after the UPPCB neglected to provide fresh samples sought by the NGT. Rathee’s capacity to reveal these manipulations explains why he is among the most reliable independent reporters of modern times.
The Horrible Effect on Public Health
Such pollution affects not only the surroundings but also quite intimate aspects. Rathee emphasizes how this pollution puts human life under peril.
Bathing in such severely contaminated water can lead to cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, digestive problems, and skin ailments. According to the CPCB’s 2022 report, river pollution is already connected to seventy percent of India’s waterborne infections.
Rathee backs up this with quotes from doctors, including one from Apollo Hospital in Delhi, where patients returning from the Mahakumbh experienced fevers, nausea, and severe skin rashes.
This is a life-saving alert, not fear-mongering. Though the government neglected to defend them, the people had rights to know. They gave religious feeling top priority over public health, therefore neglecting to guarantee a clean river.
Thebroken promises of Namami Gange
Rathee also closely examines the Namami Gange project, a major effort started in 2014 meant to clean the Ganga. Designed with a ₹33,000 crore budget—now more than ₹40,000 crore—this project was meant to make the Ganga immaculate.
Still, the situation is worse than it was ten years ago. Rathee reminds us of the 2014 pledge made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he famously remarked, “Maa Ganga has called me.” Still, the river is a dangerous mess today.
The manufacturers throwing industrial trash into the Ganga keep running unbridled. Deadlines for a clean river now stretch from 2020 to 2022 and then until 2026.
While on the ground Jonwal Drain keeps spewing untreated garbage into the river, crores of rupees are spent on meaningless marketing.
Rathee’s video demands responsibility rather than only emphasizes the failure. He exposes political figures that mislead the people instead of addressing actual issues by calling out leaders like Yogi Adityanath who claimed the Ganga was clean during Mahakumbh.
The desperate propaganda of the government
Reacting to these claims, the government produced a dubious report by Dr. Ajay Sonkar asserting that Ganga’s “self-purifying” capacity was sufficient to maintain the river clean.
Rathee refutes this with data. Based on some 2020 and 2021 research, he admits that bacteriophages—natural viruses that destroy dangerous bacteria—do present in the Ganga.
He does, however, show that the pollution levels of today much surpass what these natural forces can control.
He references IIT Delhi’s 2023 study, which revealed that despite bacteriophages dangerous bacteria still exist in the river.
Furthermore casting doubt on the validity of Dr. Sonkar’s study, he points out that it was inexplicably published only days following the NGT’s censure of the administration.
Rathee bravely questions this misleading story, demonstrating that real solutions are subordinated to public relations events by the government.
A Request to Action
The honest reporting of Dhruv Rathee is a lighthouse of truth in a time when public opinion is dominated by government deceit. His film on the pollution of the Ganga and Mahakumbh 2025 demands change rather than merely reports.
He teaches, exhorting people to hold their leaders responsible, not only criticizes. Rathee reminds us that silence is not an option by revealing propaganda, dishonesty, and corruption as well as neglect.
Rathee merits our highest regard and thanks for his bravery, moral clarity, and dedication to the truth. His voice is a wake-up call for India, demonstrating that true patriotism is advocating for the people rather than mindlessly supporting those in charge.
The issue still stands: Will the holy Ganga suffer under their control or will the government at last pay attention?
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