the latest dte has a small but gripping article on river pollution in chattisgarh.
(note all copyright belongs to dte)

one quote hit me in the head.
“You must see the Shankhini and Dankini, they are the worst polluted rivers in Asia,” he told me.

almost all rivers of india are polluted dangerously with wilful pollution by industries playing a major role in it.

but to read that 2 rivers in chattisgarh is the worst polluted river in asia is mind boggling.

if you notice the 2 rivers run via mining towns and the 'never mind dont care' (NMDC) company does not care a damn thing.

"so what's a big deal you might ask", assuming you live in a metro and are enjoying life (and of course complaining about road traffic). the big deal is that nearly 100 villages depend on this dangerously polluted river. pretty powerful are the words in the article.
Near its source at Kirandul, Shankhini introduced me to a whole new definition of bad. The closest I can come to describing what it looks like here is: part viscous bog and part a molten brown liquid that resembles something straight out of Willy Wonka’s scrumptious chocolate factory but is sure to taste quite the opposite. No, I didn’t attempt to taste. These waters, I wouldn’t recommend dipping a toe in, let alone taking a drink from it. Yet people from about 100 villages on the banks of the rivers use it for most of their daily needs.

india's developedment - which is only for its elite - is indeed not worth dipping a toe in and as the article correctly points below, the developedment for these villages is not worth living for.
Great steel, iron from these 66 per cent graded ores make. Pushes development forward in distant lands. Builds cities and highrises, cars and those tiny screws that hold your i-pod together. But back home in Dantewada, local villagers are left to live with the byproducts of development, rather aptly called “tailings”.