The research team are now calling on governments around the world to recognise the importance of clean drinking water in their fight against antibiotic resistance.
They argue that preventing the spread of resistance genes that promote life-threatening bacteria could be achieved by improving waste management at key pilgrimage sites.
The team has returned to Rishikesh and Haridwar, hoping that their work would prompt public action to improve local sanitation.
Through the overuse of antibiotics, contamination of drinking water and other factors, the humans have exponentially accelerated the rate at which superbugs might develop, said the report published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
