Is Godavari safe ahead of Kumbh mela
Amita Bhaduri
For families in Ambad, Nashik, a borewell is a source of water for everyday needs. Yellow water emerging from borewells in Ambad, Nashik, has raised concerns about a potential public health emergency about whether that water is safe to use. The findings come at a critical time for the city, which is preparing to host millions of pilgrims for the Simhastha Kumbh Mela, when the Godavari will once again draw people to its banks. While one sample cannot establish the extent of contamination or identify its source, it raises urgent questions about groundwater safety, industrial pollution and the river’s condition.
The Nashik Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela formally begins on 31 October 2026, while the first Amrut Snan, or ritual dip in the Godavari, is scheduled for 2 August 2027. Attendance estimates range from 15 to 20 crore, and officials are preparing for crowds four to five times larger than at the previous Simhastha.
A press note published by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) on 8 October 2026 reports that an accredited laboratory found 50.5 milligrams per litre (mg/L) of total chromium in a borewell sample, including 50.3 mg/L of hexavalent chromium, or Cr(VI). This is more than 1,000 times the 0.05 mg/L limit prescribed by IS 10500:2012, with no relaxation permitted even when an alternative source is unavailable.
The World Health Organization’s provisional guideline for total chromium and Health Canada’s maximum acceptable concentration match India’s 0.05 mg/L limit. Japan tightened its standard for hexavalent chromium to 0.02 mg/L in 2020. SANDRP compares Ambad with Hinkley in California and Ranipet in Tamil Nadu. A Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) status report to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) records hexavalent chromium concentrations of 0.18 to 49.43 mg/L in Ranipet groundwater.
An earlier academic study from Ambad reported concentrations as high as 218 mg/L in groundwater and 90 mg/L in a drain. These findings warrant verification through systematic sampling.
Hexavalent chromium is used in electroplating and metal finishing. It is toxic, can move through groundwater and is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a Group 1, a human carcinogen and an IIT Delhi presentation on the Rania site calls it highly mobile and highly toxic, unlike trivalent chromium. Evidence linking chromium to cancer comes largely from occupational exposure, particularly inhalation and lung cancer. The risks from ingestion involve different mechanisms: the stomach can reduce Cr(VI) to the less toxic trivalent form, Cr(III), but Health Canada identifies drinking water as the most important exposure route and bases its limit on hyperplasia of the small intestine, a precursor to tumours.
At the reported concentration, the immediate priority is to prevent further exposure. Residents reportedly use borewell water to bathe and wash clothes and utensils because municipal supplies are inconsistent. Occupational exposure studies document harm to the skin and respiratory tract, making the reported rashes, blisters and ulcers plausible concerns. Residents have also reported swollen lymph nodes and two miscarriages. These require prompt medical assessment, but cannot be attributed to chromium without clinical evidence.
Authorities must identify affected wells and provide dependable alternative water. Advising residents to stop using contaminated borewells without ensuring a safe supply would leave households bearing the consequences of a problem they cannot resolve themselves.
A CPCB report to the NGT in January 2021 identified 280 contaminated or potentially contaminated sites nationally: 112 confirmed and 168 awaiting investigation. Ambad now requires assessment to establish whether the contamination is limited to individual wells or affects a wider area.
If confirmed, this is not sudden. A study by KTHM College and Savitribai Phule Pune University, Evaluation of Heavy Metal Contamination in Groundwater of Ambad Industrial Area, sampled 21 groundwater sources and four drains over two years in an area ringed by electroplating units. It reported Cr(VI) up to 218 mg/L in groundwater and 90 mg/L in a drain, far higher before the monsoon than after. It appeared in a modest-impact journal, and figures that large need replication, but it shows that concentrations swing with season, so a single grab sample can misrepresent the burden, and that the hazard has long been in the literature.
Godavari pollution at Nashik has also long been litigated. Coverage of the previous Kumbh described around 20 locations where sewage and industrial effluent entered the river directly. A Bombay High Court order of December 2018 took up, among other issues, the treatment of industrial waste from the Satpur and Ambad areas and pollution during Kumbh, and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board’s (MPCB) 2023 pollution assessment monitored groundwater at both industrial estates.
The report suspects industrial activity in the Ambad Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) area, and activists point to electroplating and metal-finishing units. Proving this requires tracing pathways, effluent management and groundwater flow. At tens of mg/L a natural origin looks implausible, though natural background Cr(VI) is a recognised complication elsewhere and source apportionment is still needed. Closing a discharge will not remove chromium already in the aquifer; in Japan, one leaking plating plant in Kochi produced a plume roughly 1,200 metres long and 120 metres wide, affecting 51 of 119 wells. A CPCB record of contaminated-site assessments also reportedly documents contamination at a Nashik MIDC site; that does not make it the source, but earlier remediation commitments should be reviewed.
MPCB reportedly issued a show-cause notice to a single company on 30 September without publishing its test data or informing residents; it should be asked to respond. Elsewhere, in Bengaluru’s Peenya area, a Karnataka board survey found chromium in 20 of 72 borewells, some 600–700 times the limit, and a later IISc study found 78 per cent of 28 samples unfit for drinking because of Cr(VI). A cluster-wide inspection should cover consent conditions, effluent treatment and hazardous-waste manifests, and all results and methods should be public.
Activists report that the borewell water reaches a local drain and joins the Godavari near a Kumbh ghat through the Nandini tributary, which MPCB’s environmental status report lists as the Nasardi. If confirmed, the problem extends beyond wells to a river already burdened. The NGT took suo motu cognisance of a report that Maharashtra’s 300 km stretch from Nashik to Paithan suffers extremely high organic pollution, and a Dindori MP told the Lok Sabha that sewage and industrial wastewater were degrading the river ahead of the Kumbh. An earlier analysis, “Godavari: Worshipped, Destroyed & Forgotten River of Nashik”, asked why the river draws attention at religious events but not year-round, and the High Court has pressed the Nashik Municipal Corporation on whether pollution continues.
Authorities must establish the discharge point and sample the drain, its confluence, the river above and below, and bathing sites across seasons. If the Ambad study’s pattern holds, drain concentrations may fall in the monsoon, when the main baths occur, through dilution, while runoff carries more load; that is an inference to test, not a finding. One borewell sample does not establish river concentrations, but a possible hazardous discharge warrants precaution.
The administration has directed agencies to make the Godavari pollution-free and complete industrial effluent treatment urgently, and riverfront events are planned, including a Godavari aarti at Ramkund with President Droupadi Murmu. Cleanghats cannot substitute for controlling pollution at the source.
First, give affected households enough safe water for drinking, cooking and bathing, restrict contaminated borewells (activists ask for capping and daily tankers) and inform residents in local languages. Health authorities should offer dermatological, paediatric and obstetric screening and wound care; treatment must not wait for epidemiology.
Second, MPCB, the district administration and the Nashik Municipal Corporation should coordinate sampling of groundwater, soil, drains and the river, including the Nandini and the Godavari downstream, alert downstream users, map wells and flow directions, and repeat sampling over time.
Third, accountability must be enforceable. Where violations are established, regulators should stop discharges and pursue legal action, including the FIRs and compensation activists seek. The polluter-pays principle should guide cost recovery; CPCB’s own position is that remediation funds must be borne by the responsible party.
Finally, plan for long-term remediation. At Ranipet, where chromium waste was dumped for about 25 years, CPCB’s project report estimated about Rs 206 crore, with groundwater pumping and treatment for 10–15 years at Rs 10–15 crore annually. In Uttar Pradesh, an amicus report to the NGT in 2026 described active chromium pollution needing immediate action and urged a temporary plan to protect the Ganga with the Mahakumbh in mind, a close parallel to Nashik. No remedy should be prescribed before a site-specific assessment.
The Kumbh offers a deadline, but it must not prompt an appearance-driven response. Contaminated groundwater outlasts pilgrims, and restoration may take years. A sacred river cannot be protected by ceremonial cleaning alone. The real test is not whether the ghats are ready, but whether the city can guarantee that its residents are not forced to live with toxic water and that the river pilgrims' coming to worship is protected by the time they reach it.
The challenge facing Nashik extends beyond the preparations for a major religious gathering. It involves establishing the extent of groundwater contamination, identifying any responsible sources and ensuring that residents have access to safe water. The reported pathway from Ambad to the Godavari must also be investigated rather than assumed. These questions require evidence, public disclosure and sustained action. The Kumbh makes the timeline pressing, but protecting the river and the people who depend on it is a responsibility that continues long after the festival ends.