Revised Exclusive Toi Prayagraj Revision: In a breakthrough study by the Hindu University medical and geneticist (BHU), Varanasi and Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeoscience (BSIP), Lucknow, has found that there is no trace of Coronavirus in Ganga water even during the peak of the second wave of covid pandemics -19.
These findings have significance in the background of the fact that BSIP scientists have found Coronavirus in the water of the Gomti River in the state capital.
“A team with Bhu and BSED investigated the possibility of the presence of Coronavirus in Ganga because many experts have expressed a contrasting view after the human body was found floating in the river during May 2021,” said Prof.
Gyaneshwar Chaubey from the Zoology Department, Bhu.
He added, “To investigate the possibility of a trace of Coronavirus in Ganga, the team collected two samples every week for seven weeks from Varanasi City starting 15 to July.
3.
The point of collecting samples and processes to test the sample is the same at any time,” said Prof.
Chaubey.
“Our team extracts RNA and conducts RT PCR tests for all samples with the actual positive and negative samples.
Strangely, there are no samples collected from Ganga which shows a trail of RNA virus.
However, the samples collected from the Gomti River indeed showed the existence of RNA viruses, “Niraj Rai said scientist, who heads the Covid lab at the Institute.
He added that his team had found the presence of a virus in Gomti Air even after treatment of waste water in two stew processing plants (STPS) from Lucknow.
“The virus was found in Gomti last year (September 2020) and this year (May 21),” he added.
This finding is also important because it has been done amid fears that Ganga river water can be contaminated after several bodies are found floating in the Ganga River and Yamuna.
A large number of bodies were also buried in their banks during the peak of Covid-19 pandemic.
Prof.
VN Mishra from the Neuri Department of Bhu, one of the main contributors to this study, said: “This finding implies that Ganga water has some extraordinary properties because of the natural ‘virus fag’ in the water.” “We explored more to understand this phenomenon,” said Prof.
Chaubey.
Apart from Prof.
Mishra and Prof.
Chaubey, the Varanasi team also included Abhishek Pathak research scientists, Prajjval Pratap Singh, Debashruti Das and Bhargavi.