New Delhi, May 10 -- Rivers have always shaped the political and economic foundations of South Asia, but contemporary debates surrounding the Indus and Ganges systems remain narrowly centred on water allocation, hydro diplomacy, and interstate tensions. What receives far less attention is the zoological collapse unfolding within these river systems themselves. The ecological degradation of South Asia's major rivers is no longer only an environmental issue; it has become a governance failure driven by weak regulation, fragmented environmental policy, and development models that prioritise industrial growth over ecological sustainability.

In both Pakistan and India, pollution is transforming biologically complex river ecosystems into chemi...