PRAYAGRAJ: Despite over 60 crore visitors and countless holy dips during Mahakumbh, the Ganga remains completely germ-free.
According to a study conducted by a leading scientist reveals that Ganga is the world’s only freshwater river where 1,100 types of bacteriophages naturally purify the water by eliminating pollution and killing 50 times more germs than their number, even altering their RNA.
Padma Shri Dr. Ajay Sonkar, who APJ Abdul Kalam once praised, has unveiled a ground-breaking revelation about Ganga water at Mahakumbh. The top scientist likens Ganga’s power to seawater, crediting its bacteriophages for eliminating pollution and harmful bacteria before vanishing themselves. Known as Ganga’s ‘security guard,’ these bacteriophages instantly purify the river.
Dr. Sonkar, a global researcher in cancer, genetic code, cell biology, and autophagy, has also collaborated with leading institutions like Wageningen University, Rice University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and Harvard Medical School.
Sonkar reveals that Ganga water contains 1,100 types of bacteriophages, which act like security guards–precisely identifying and eliminating harmful bacteria. Bacteriophages, though 50 times smaller than bacteria, possess incredible power.
They infiltrate bacteria, hack their RNA, and ultimately destroy them. During Maha Kumbh, as lakhs take a holy dip, Ganga detects body-released germs as a threat. As stated in the release, its bacteriophages activate instantly to neutralize them.
According to the study, the specialty of bacteriophages is that they destroy only harmful bacteria. Ganga’s 1,100 types of bacteriophages target and destroy various germs. Each phage rapidly produces 100-300 new ones, which continue the attack, eliminating harmful bacteria. Ganga’s bacteriophages are host-specific, targeting only bacteria introduced during bathing. This self-cleaning process mirrors the oceanic activity that purifies seawater.
Dr. Ajay Sonkar highlights the medical potential of bacteriophages, which can target harmful bacteria without affecting beneficial ones. He sees Ganga’s unique self-purification as a message from nature–just as the river safeguards its existence, humanity must live in harmony with nature, or risk nature taking its own course of action.
Dr Ajay has worked extensively on cell biology and autophagy with 2016 Nobel laureate Japanese scientist Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi from Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has also worked twice on cognitive fitness and sensitive guts at Harvard Medical School.