Case Study — Kanpur Stretch, Ganga

Coming Soon

Why this stretch

The Kanpur stretch of the Ganga — running through Uttar Pradesh’s largest industrial city — is one of the most studied and most cited examples of industrial river pollution in India. It sits at the intersection of economic livelihood, industrial legacy, regulatory failure, and sacred geography.

What this case study will cover

• The tannery cluster: Kanpur’s leather industry, its scale, its export significance, and the effluent treatment infrastructure (or lack of it) that has defined the stretch’s pollution profile for decades
• Chromium contamination: the specific chemistry of hexavalent chromium, its presence in Ganga sediments and groundwater near Kanpur, and what the long-term data shows
• The monitoring record: what CPCB and NMCG data says about BOD, DO, and heavy metal levels at key monitoring points through the stretch, and where the data is patchy
• Interventions and their outcomes: the history of Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs), court orders, NGT interventions, and Namami Gange investments — what improved, what did not, and why
• Community impact: what contamination means for the downstream communities, agricultural land, and religious use of the river

A critical context note

The Kanpur stretch is frequently cited in media as a symbol of Ganga pollution. This case study will examine that narrative critically — looking at what the data supports, where claims are exaggerated, and where the reality is actually worse than reported.

Full case study coming soon

This page is a placeholder. The complete case study will include data visualisations, a timeline of key events and interventions, and links to primary sources including CPCB reports and peer-reviewed studies.