Use of Ganga water for Covid treatment: Allahabad HC notice to Centre, ICMR

The Allahabad high court has issued notices to the central government and director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), on a PIL seeking lab test to ascertain the properties of bacteriophages (a virus that destroys harmful bacteria) found in Ganga water, which as claimed in the PIL, can treat Covid-19

The Allahabad high court has issued notices to the central government and director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), on a PIL seeking lab test to ascertain the properties of bacteriophages (a virus that destroys harmful bacteria) found in Ganga water, which as claimed in the PIL, can treat Covid-19.

HT Image

Ernest Hackins, a British bacteriologist in 1896, had found the presence of bacteriophages in Ganga and in studies discovered that its presence does not putrefy or deteriorate the quality of water and rather kills pathogens and bacteria.

The bench comprising acting chief justice MN Bhandari and justice Rajendra Kumar passed the above order on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Arun Kumar Gupta, a senior advocate of Allahabad high court on June 30.

According to the petitioner, he was studying curative properties of Ganga since long and after the outbreak of Covid-19 last year, he started searching on the internet for the effect of Ganga water on Covid patients.

After research, the petitioner prepared a paper titled, ‘Treatment of Covid-19 by Ganga Jal’ and sent the same through e-mail to the President of India on April 26, 2020 and the National Mission for Clean Ganga.

The mission forwarded it to the Ayush Ministry and the director general, ICMR, but his paper was not considered due to lack of scientific studies.

As the petitioner was an advocate and clinical study had to be done by a recognised medical institute, Gupta approached doctors of Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS, BHU, Varanasi) and Dr Vijay Nath Mishra, professor in department of Neurology, BHU for further scientific research and clinical study on the subject.

In the petition, it was stated that a nasal spray was also prepared by a team of BHU doctors for treatment of coronavirus, but permission for its clinical trials was pending before the ethics committee, IMS, BHU for the last 7 months.

The case will be listed for hearing on expiry of 6 weeks from the date of the order.