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Ganges (BBC TV series)
Encyclopedia
Ganges is a nature documentary
series for television on the natural history of the River Ganges in India
and Bangladesh
. As well as the variety of animals and habitats that are to be found along the river’s 2,510 km (1,557 mi) reach, the programmes also feature the cultures, traditions and religions of the very large human population that it supports. For Hindu
s, the Ganges is a sacred river and a place of pilgrimage, a deep influence on their religion and culture as well as being their lifeblood. Over the course of three episodes, the series is presented as a journey from the source of the river in the high Himalaya to its delta at the Bay of Bengal
.
Ganges is narrated by actor/playwright Sudha Bhuchar and produced by the BBC Natural History Unit
, in association with the Travel Channel
and France 3
. The series producer is Ian Gray. It was first broadcast on BBC Two
in August 2007 and formed part of the BBC
’s “India and Pakistan ‘07” season, marking the 60th anniversary of independence from British rule and the partitioning
of India and Pakistan.
The format was previously used by the BBC for earlier documentary series on the world's major river systems, including Congo
(2001) and Nile (2004).
The film gradually follows the Ganges back along its course, ascending further into the Himalayan mountains, and encountering some of the fabled sources of the Ganges, and most Holy pilgrimage centres along the way.
Beginning at Kedarnath as the thaw sets in in May and 100,000s of pilgrims start their annual ascent, we go up through Yamunotri
- not the source of the Ganges but of its sister the Yamuna
- Badrinath, which has one of the holiest temples on the route, and up to Gangotri.
But geographically this is also not the source and the film follows the path up past Gaumukh and on to the Tapovan meadows, which is identified, at least here, as the true source of the river.
All along this route we get glimpses of the varied wildlife that make their home here, from rare photography of the Snow Leopard
in the mountains, to the Lammergeier
which, with its 3 metre wingspan, is one of the largest birds of prey, and the Langur or Hanuman monkeys in the huge Deodar trees.
It also visits Nandadevi, the second highest peak in India, and the Valley of Flowers
which lies in its foothills, and has over 600 plant species, including the Himalayan Balsam which in Spring cloaks the valley in pink, and we also see something of the bird-life that thrives in the valley.
The film then shows the effects of the monsoon hail storms and rains, which give the river half of its flow-waters in just a few weeks, and helps wash down an astonishing 2 billion tons of sediment into the plains of India, making it the most fertile soil on Earth.
The film ends by following the river down from Devprayag
, where the Alakananda and Bhagirathi rivers converge and the Ganges finally is identified as a separate river, and through the Holy cities of Rishikesh and Haridwar
.
, here there are grasses that can grow 4 metres a year - so large they can even hide elephants.
Other creatures also live in the Terai swamplands: White Rhinoceros
and Tiger
s, as well as birds like Brahmany Ducks, Spoonbill
s and Indian Skimmers. We also see the extraordinary life of the gharial, a very distinctive form of crocodile.
The monsoon when it comes brings back life to the river which has been drying up during the hot season and washes down an enormous amount of sediment from the mountains producing muds and soils that are estimated to be 3 miles deep in certain places.
In the rice bowls that this fertile land produces we can see domestic birds like ducks, who help clean and fertilise the rice fields; and the Sarus Crane
, which is the largest flying bird on earth, and its courtship dances.
Emphasis is placed on the Hindu respect for all life forms, even dangerous ones like the cobra, which in certain villages are allowed to roam freely throughout the compounds; and the mischievous macaques who are quite violent when in search of food.
This is contrasted with the devastation caused first by the Moghuls and their hunting practices, and even more so by the British, who not only hunted, but also destroyed habitats wholesale in their greed for commerce.
The team also visit the Sonepur Mela in Bihar
, the largest livestock fair in India, where cattle, horses and elephants, some of which can sell for up to BPS 10,000; and see villagers fighting off wild elephants in packs of up to 100 in Bengal
.
This episode closes by tracing the branch river, the Hooghly, as it flows through Kolkata
, and looks at the effect large scale populations are having on the river itself, with their ever-increasing pollution, and asks whether the river, and its inhabitants like the Ganges River Dolphin, can survive the onslaught.
and forms the largest delta system in the world.
The delta itself straddles both India and Bangladesh
, part of which is the world's largest mangrove swamp, the Sunderbans, which is home not only to Giant Asian Honey Bees, which provide a bountiful harvest of honey for those brave enough to enter the swamp, but also to aggressive man-eating tigers which take many lives each year.
The film follows a scientific team as they tranquilise and place a tracking-collar on a tigress, and follow her journeys through the swamps and temporary villages they hold in a hope of understanding more of how they live and survive in such inhospitable lands.
The swamp also plays home to many other creatures, from mud-skippers, who are thoroughly adopted to their environment, and can use their fins to walk on dry land, to otters which are bred by fishermen and help drive fish into their nets. Astonishingly an otter may sell for up to US$100 they are so useful to the fishermen.
The delta itself is also home to the largest density of human population of earth, in a land around the size of Britain, six times more people find their living, and all thanks to the river, which not only brings water, but also fertile mud to the area making 3 rice crops a year possible.
We watch the changes the land undergoes through the dry season, where water levels can drop as much as 6 metres in 6 months, and into the rainy season, where water levels dramatically rise causing animals and humans alike to migrate as erosion takes its toll.
The documentary ends by wondering once again whether the river can survive as populations increase, drinking and using up the precious water as it flows through the land, and sees hope in the reverence the river has always commanded from the Hindu religion and its adherents, as we watch 1,000,000 pilgrims gather at Sagar Island to give thanks to the river before it enters the sea.
Nature documentary
A natural history film or wildlife film is a documentary film about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures, usually concentrating on film taken in their natural habitat...
series for television on the natural history of the River Ganges in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
. As well as the variety of animals and habitats that are to be found along the river’s 2,510 km (1,557 mi) reach, the programmes also feature the cultures, traditions and religions of the very large human population that it supports. For Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
s, the Ganges is a sacred river and a place of pilgrimage, a deep influence on their religion and culture as well as being their lifeblood. Over the course of three episodes, the series is presented as a journey from the source of the river in the high Himalaya to its delta at the Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal , the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered mostly by the Eastern Coast of India, southern coast of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the...
.
Ganges is narrated by actor/playwright Sudha Bhuchar and produced by the BBC Natural History Unit
BBC Natural History Unit
The BBC Natural History Unit is a department of the BBC dedicated to making television and radio programmes with a natural history or wildlife theme, especially nature documentaries...
, in association with the Travel Channel
Travel Channel
The Travel Channel is a satellite and cable television channel that is headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, US. It features documentaries and how-to shows related to travel and leisure around the United States and throughout the world. Programming has included shows in African animal safaris,...
and France 3
France 3
France 3 is the second largest French public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5, and France Ô....
. The series producer is Ian Gray. It was first broadcast on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
in August 2007 and formed part of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
’s “India and Pakistan ‘07” season, marking the 60th anniversary of independence from British rule and the partitioning
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
of India and Pakistan.
The format was previously used by the BBC for earlier documentary series on the world's major river systems, including Congo
Congo (BBC TV series)
Congo is a 2001 BBC nature documentary series for television on the natural history of the Congo River of Central Africa. In three episodes, the series explores the variety of animals and habitats that are to be found along the river’s 4,700 km reach.Congo was produced for the BBC Natural History...
(2001) and Nile (2004).
1. "Daughter of the Mountains"
The first of the programmes, taking the legendary mythology surrounding the Ganges seriously, shows how the natural world and the spiritual world have always been entwined in Hindu thought and life, and explains how the gift of life that the river brings is the reason she is held is such high reverence.The film gradually follows the Ganges back along its course, ascending further into the Himalayan mountains, and encountering some of the fabled sources of the Ganges, and most Holy pilgrimage centres along the way.
Beginning at Kedarnath as the thaw sets in in May and 100,000s of pilgrims start their annual ascent, we go up through Yamunotri
Yamunotri
Yamunotri is the source of the Yamuna River and the seat of the Goddess Yamuna in Hinduism. It is situated at an altitude of in the Garhwal Himalayas and located approximately North of Uttarkashi, the headquarters of the Uttarkashi district in the Garhwal Division of Uttarakhand, India...
- not the source of the Ganges but of its sister the Yamuna
Yamuna
The Yamuna is the largest tributary river of the Ganges in northern India...
- Badrinath, which has one of the holiest temples on the route, and up to Gangotri.
But geographically this is also not the source and the film follows the path up past Gaumukh and on to the Tapovan meadows, which is identified, at least here, as the true source of the river.
All along this route we get glimpses of the varied wildlife that make their home here, from rare photography of the Snow Leopard
Snow Leopard
The snow leopard is a moderately large cat native to the mountain ranges of South Asia and Central Asia...
in the mountains, to the Lammergeier
Lammergeier
The Lammergeier, Lammergeyer, or Bearded Vulture, Gypaetus barbatus , is the only member of the genus Gypaetus. Traditionally considered an Old World vulture, it actually forms a minor lineage of Accipitridae together with the Egyptian Vulture , its closest living relative...
which, with its 3 metre wingspan, is one of the largest birds of prey, and the Langur or Hanuman monkeys in the huge Deodar trees.
It also visits Nandadevi, the second highest peak in India, and the Valley of Flowers
Valley of Flowers
Valley of Flowers National Park is an Indian national park, nestled high in West Himalaya, is renowned for its meadows of endemic alpine flowers and outstanding natural beauty. It is located in Uttarakhand state. This richly diverse area is also home to rare and endangered animals, including the...
which lies in its foothills, and has over 600 plant species, including the Himalayan Balsam which in Spring cloaks the valley in pink, and we also see something of the bird-life that thrives in the valley.
The film then shows the effects of the monsoon hail storms and rains, which give the river half of its flow-waters in just a few weeks, and helps wash down an astonishing 2 billion tons of sediment into the plains of India, making it the most fertile soil on Earth.
The film ends by following the river down from Devprayag
Devprayag
Devprayag is a town and a nagar panchayat in Tehri Garhwal district in the state of Uttarakhand, India, and is one of the Panch Prayag of Alaknanda River and where the Ganges River is formed.-Overview:Traditionally, it is considered to be the place where sage Devasharma led his ascetic life,...
, where the Alakananda and Bhagirathi rivers converge and the Ganges finally is identified as a separate river, and through the Holy cities of Rishikesh and Haridwar
Haridwar
Haridwar is an important pilgrimage city and municipality in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, India...
.
2. "River of Life"
The story of the river is taken up in this episode as it leaves the Himalayan foothills and enters the swamplands known as the TeraiTerai
The Terai is a belt of marshy grasslands, savannas, and forests located south of the outer foothills of the Himalaya, the Siwalik Hills, and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and their tributaries. The Terai belongs to the Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands ecoregion...
, here there are grasses that can grow 4 metres a year - so large they can even hide elephants.
Other creatures also live in the Terai swamplands: White Rhinoceros
White Rhinoceros
The White Rhinoceros or Square-lipped rhinoceros is one of the five species of rhinoceros that still exist. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species...
and Tiger
Tiger
The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
s, as well as birds like Brahmany Ducks, Spoonbill
Spoonbill
Spoonbills are a group of large, long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, which also includes the Ibises.All have large, flat, spatulate bills and feed by wading through shallow water, sweeping the partly opened bill from side to side...
s and Indian Skimmers. We also see the extraordinary life of the gharial, a very distinctive form of crocodile.
The monsoon when it comes brings back life to the river which has been drying up during the hot season and washes down an enormous amount of sediment from the mountains producing muds and soils that are estimated to be 3 miles deep in certain places.
In the rice bowls that this fertile land produces we can see domestic birds like ducks, who help clean and fertilise the rice fields; and the Sarus Crane
Sarus Crane
The Sarus Crane is a large non-migratory crane found in parts of the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Australia. The tallest of the flying birds, standing at a height of up to 1.8 m , they are conspicuous and iconic species of open wetlands...
, which is the largest flying bird on earth, and its courtship dances.
Emphasis is placed on the Hindu respect for all life forms, even dangerous ones like the cobra, which in certain villages are allowed to roam freely throughout the compounds; and the mischievous macaques who are quite violent when in search of food.
This is contrasted with the devastation caused first by the Moghuls and their hunting practices, and even more so by the British, who not only hunted, but also destroyed habitats wholesale in their greed for commerce.
The team also visit the Sonepur Mela in Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
, the largest livestock fair in India, where cattle, horses and elephants, some of which can sell for up to BPS 10,000; and see villagers fighting off wild elephants in packs of up to 100 in Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
.
This episode closes by tracing the branch river, the Hooghly, as it flows through Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
, and looks at the effect large scale populations are having on the river itself, with their ever-increasing pollution, and asks whether the river, and its inhabitants like the Ganges River Dolphin, can survive the onslaught.
3. "Waterland"
Having watched the rise of the Ganges in the Himalayas and its flow through the plains of India, in the final episode we see the effect the river has when it meets the Bay of BengalBay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal , the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered mostly by the Eastern Coast of India, southern coast of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the...
and forms the largest delta system in the world.
The delta itself straddles both India and Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, part of which is the world's largest mangrove swamp, the Sunderbans, which is home not only to Giant Asian Honey Bees, which provide a bountiful harvest of honey for those brave enough to enter the swamp, but also to aggressive man-eating tigers which take many lives each year.
The film follows a scientific team as they tranquilise and place a tracking-collar on a tigress, and follow her journeys through the swamps and temporary villages they hold in a hope of understanding more of how they live and survive in such inhospitable lands.
The swamp also plays home to many other creatures, from mud-skippers, who are thoroughly adopted to their environment, and can use their fins to walk on dry land, to otters which are bred by fishermen and help drive fish into their nets. Astonishingly an otter may sell for up to US$100 they are so useful to the fishermen.
The delta itself is also home to the largest density of human population of earth, in a land around the size of Britain, six times more people find their living, and all thanks to the river, which not only brings water, but also fertile mud to the area making 3 rice crops a year possible.
We watch the changes the land undergoes through the dry season, where water levels can drop as much as 6 metres in 6 months, and into the rainy season, where water levels dramatically rise causing animals and humans alike to migrate as erosion takes its toll.
The documentary ends by wondering once again whether the river can survive as populations increase, drinking and using up the precious water as it flows through the land, and sees hope in the reverence the river has always commanded from the Hindu religion and its adherents, as we watch 1,000,000 pilgrims gather at Sagar Island to give thanks to the river before it enters the sea.