A month-long festival will be organised in 262 different locations spanning from Gangotri to Gangasagar to showcase the treasure trove of cultural diversity and heritage of the Ganga river basin besides spreading awareness on the need to protect and rejuvenate the national river.
The festival called “Ganga Sanskriti Yatra” will begin from February 14. It will conclude at Kapilmuni Ashram at Gangasagar on March 13.
According to sources in the Ministry of water resources and Ganga Rejuvenation, nearly 2.5 crore people will be involved in various activities which will be carried out during the course of the festival.
Pointing to the immense cultural diversity of the Ganga basin the sources said that there are nearly 62 tunes, 254 types of songs and ballads, 122 dance forms, 200 crafts, 12 styles of folk paintings, 26 languages and dialects that have developed along the banks of Ganga.
Down the centuries, the river has fascinated several poets and writers. Nearly 100 festivals and 50 major fairs are celebrated annually at the bank of the Ganga, said the sources.
The main components of the Ganga fest thus include presentation of various art forms prevalent along Ganga basin. These include diverse forms of folk art as theatre, dance, music etc. besides dance drama, documentary films, films shows, street plays, kavi sammelan, photography exhibitions, film shows, quiz competitions, seminars and poster campaigns.
To add to the above, seminars on cultural diversity and heritage of Ganga river basin and challenges of the river rejuvenation will also be organised at different venues during the month-long festival.
The prominent venues of the seminars include Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Srinagar, Garhwal; Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi; Jayprakash Narayan University, Chhapra; Patna University, Bhagalpur University, Tilka Majhi University, Bhagalpur; Presidency University, Jadavpur University and Calcutta University, Kolkata; Kalyani University and Barasat University, West Bengal.
Meanwhile, the major sites of Ganga Sanskriti Yatra are the Gangotri, Haridwar, Bijnor, Farukkabad, Kannuj, Kanpur, Allahabad, Mirzapur, Varanasi, Gazipur, Baliya, Buxur, Chhapra, Vaishali, Patna, Begusarai, Munger, Sultanganj, Bhagalpur, Rajmahal, Murshidabad, Baharampur, Dakhineswar and Gangasagar amongst others. The festival will also cover all the confluences of the tributaries of the river besides places of historical and cultural importance.