Coverage of Ganga Pollution Issue by Daily Newspapers in Garhwal (Uttarakhand): A case Study

River pollution is one of the main pollution problems in the world. Though there is a universal reverence to water in almost all of the major religions of the world. The purity of such water, the belief in its known historical and unknown mythological origins, and the inaccessibility of remote sources, elevates its importance even further. In India, river Ganga is treated with such reverence. It has been India's river of faith, devotion and worship still today it is one of the most polluted rivers not only in India but in the world too.1 This is important that media can plays responsible role towards this issue. Media cannot cure pollution in the river but can spread awareness and educate people about the issue. Print media has always been the principle source for people to get information about any environmental issues because it interprets their scientific aspects that a common man can easily understand. Anders Hansen said, “The way in which we make sense of the environmental threats which face human-kind is greatly conditioned by a powerful and omnipresent set of electronic and printed messages – the mass media.2 Pollution in river Ganga is as same as in plains. The presumption that Ganga is clean in the hills and it gets polluted when it enters in the plains of Uttar Pradesh, is not true. According to a study (2011) by the Uttarakhand Environmental Protection and Pollution Control Board, the present level of Coliform in this river at Haridwar has reached 5,500 mpn/100ml whereas even below 5,000 mpn/100 ml, water can only be used for agriculture. This study is a case study done on Daily newspapers published from Uttarakhand. This study analyzed the aspects and context of news or stories related to Ganga pollution issue. Using qualitative method of content analysis four national newspapers (Two Hindi language and two English language) published from Uttarakhand are analyzed during one year period.