Bengaluru: Videos of devotees pouring 11,000 litres of milk into the Narmada river in Sehore district in Madhya Pradesh have gone viral on social media this week. The incident allegedly occurred on Wednesday (April 8) and was, ironically, part of rituals to worship the Narmada river.Water experts have raised concerns about the incident as this could lead to immediate changes in water quality in the river stretch due to a dip in dissolved oxygen levels, affecting not just biodiversity but also people who depend on the river.This, however, is not an isolated event. Blind faith and rituals in the name of religion are choking rivers across India and while such activities should ideally be regulated, authorities will baulk to address this for obvious reasons, experts said.Milk in the NarmadaOn April 8, devotees poured 11,000 litres of milk into the Narmada river at the village of Satdev in Sehore district, according to a report by NDTV. The incident was purportedly part of a 21-day mahayagya (or a “grand ritual”) held at the Shri Dadaji Darbar Pataleshwar Mahadev Temple in the village. Per the report, the milk was poured into the river to worship it.Videos show a tanker releasing milk into the river, turning parts of it white. Devotees gathered around on the banks can be seen hailing the ritual, and clapping their hands.Drone Visual –नर्मदा नदी किनारे टैंकर खड़ा करके 11 हजार लीटर दूध “दादा जी बाबा” के द्वारा चढ़ाया गया। https://t.co/WJJzHzXURv pic.twitter.com/zcwrEUKmV3— Sachin Gupta (@Sachingupta) April 9, 2026Per the NDTV report, a devotee defended the ritual, saying that this was an ‘abhisheka’ (ritual where a deity is bathed in offerings) for the river itself, and that the holy men associated with it see the river as a “mother”.The Wire reached out to the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board but the officer-in-charge was not available over phone.Bad for the river, its biodiversityIf people truly worshipped rivers they should not be doing anything that will be detrimental to them, water expert Himanshu Thakkar told The Wire.The release of such a large quantity of milk will be bad for the river and biodiversity in the river, as well as the people who depend on it for their livelihoods.“Firstly, it will require a lot of bioresources to digest the milk, so the biochemical oxygen demand will go up drastically,” Thakkar, who is coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, said.Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is the amount of oxygen consumed by microorganisms in water to decompose organic matter. An increased BOD is a sign of heavy pollution.“Secondly, the transparency of the water will go down and this will affect various organisms in the river, below the surface. The dissolved oxygen in the immediate vicinity will be absorbed entirely. This sudden decrease in dissolved oxygen can even have immediate impacts like fish kills,” Thakkar said.People who use the water will be adversely affected, including fisherfolk, he added.And fishing is an important livelihood for people along the Narmada. A report by Mongabay India in 2019 noted that thousands of farmers have turned to fishing from farming after major dams such as the Sardar Sarovar project were built on the river.Moreover, pollution is already a grave concern in the Narmada. A study published in 2025 that reviewed literature related to the Narmada found that the river already “faces significant water quality and quantity challenges, primarily because of pollution from various sources and increasing water demand”.It noted that water quality in the river had steadily declined from 1990 to 2012, “emphasising the need for improved wastewater management”. It also added that there is moderate contamination from heavy metals such as lead, and that these findings “underscore the necessity for stringent monitoring, pollution control measures and sustainable water management strategies to preserve the river’s ecological integrity”.Online backlashThe videos of milk being released into the Narmada in the name of rituals has drawn a lot of criticism on social media. Many commented on how releasing a tanker of milk into the river would be a “criminal offence” in an ideal world.> In Thailand if you dirty a river you can get jailed for an year and if repeated you get prosecuted.> In USA if you dirty a river intentionally you get jailed for 15 years.> In UK upto 5 years> In Denmark upto 2 years and fines more than your salary> In Australia upto… https://t.co/FA2PVVhNus— Chirag Barjatya (@chiragbarjatya) April 9, 2026With the videos going viral on social media, numerous users remarked at the “stupidity” of the ritual, calling it “blind superstition”.Decomposition of milk consumes a hell lot of dissolved oxygen from water bodies significantly harming the aquatic ecosystem. Milk in the river actually is a pollutant.What an epic display of stupidity! https://t.co/4vbdaaNjYq— Nachiket Deshpande (@nachiket1982) April 9, 2026“Milk has a biochemical oxygen demand roughly 300 times that of raw sewage, so dumping 13,000 litres of it into the Narmada doesn’t feed the fish, it actually suffocates them. Spend your own money on whatever ritual you want, nobody’s stopping you, but the river isn’t your personal disposal site. These customs were designed for a subcontinent of under 100 million people. We are now 1.5 billion. This cannot keep going on,” said Frontier Indica, a commentator on politics and society on X.“In Madhya Pradesh, 11,000 liters of milk are being poured into the Narmada River, while on the other hand, 10 lakh children in the state are victims of malnutrition and are struggling for even a single mid-day meal. When hunger and malnutrition are a bitter reality in the country, then for whose sake are such ostentatious rituals ultimately,” commented environmental and social activist Hansraj Meena, founder of Tribal Army, a platform that raises issues about tribal rights and welfare across India.In February, news had surfaced of a worker diluting a litre of milk in a bucket of water in a primary school in Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba district to be given to students, in gross violation of the mid-day meal scheme that requires that each child be given 200 ml of locally available milk together with a freshly cooked meal.Rituals and riversThis incident of releasing milk into the Narmada on April 8, however, is not an isolated one. In February, Ground Report reported of devotees pouring 165 litres of ghee into the river Ganga at Prayajgraj in Uttar Pradesh as part of the Magh Mela, a religious gathering.Hindu culture is the biggest threat to Environment & EcologyHe is flaunting 11 canisters of pure ghee being poured into Ganga.This is peak stupidity backed by devotion.And we wonder why our rivers are so polluted. pic.twitter.com/t783F5bW3F— Tarun Gautam (@TARUNspeakss) February 1, 2026While people pour ghee and milk into rivers at big religious gatherings, they also immerse flowers and lamps into rivers on a daily basis, along with wood, half-burned bodies, ash, bones and even clothes, Thakkar said.“The state of our rivers is so bad. They’re supposed to be sacred, we supposedly worship them. But we are actually contributing to [their] degradation. What kind of sacredness or worship is this? It defies logic. Anybody who understands science even a little will see that we are worsening the state of our rivers … If we truly worship our rivers, religion should be persuading people to stop polluting rivers. But religion never stands up for that. It is unfortunate,” he said.While the state can regulate these activities if it wants to, it is very difficult for it to do so beyond a point, Thakkar said. “It will mean being unpopular, which governments do not want.”With regards to the Narmada, the river is one of the most dammed rivers and there is very little flow in the river, Thakkar added.“The flow is even less in these summer days, so the impact will be much greater compared to rivers having more flows. The state and religious bodies must stand up for the rivers.”