2. Ganges River, India Ganga is considered to be the holiest river in Hinduism. It originates from the gangotri glacier in the western Himalayas, flows south and east through the Gangetic plain of north India entering Bangladesh and merges into the Bay of Bengal. Due to religious practices, this river has numerous pollutants ranging from household garbage in abundance to industrial wastes and toxic. Amplifying this, the religious offerings made to the river each day along with people bathing and disposal of dead bodies made the Ganges so polluted that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that people living in the vicinity of the river are vulnerable to cancer.