Calcutta, April 12 :    Calcutta, April 12:  In a virtual rerun of Satyajit Ray's Ganashatru, the West Bengal Pollution Control Board today said in a report that the charanamrita of the Shiv temple at Tarakeshwar in Hooghly is contaminated and unfit for human consumption. In most of the samples of charanamrita collected by the PCB for analysis, a 'high concentration of faecal coliform' was found, which 'may cause water-borne diseases', said the report submitted before the Calcutta High Court. 'The mixture of milk and water trickling from the Shivlinga is known as charanamrita and is taken by devotees as holy water,' said the report drawn up by environment engineers Subrata Ghosh and P.K. Bhattacharya. The green bench of the high court asked the Hooghly district magistrate, directorate of public health engineering and the Tarakeshwar municipality chairman to file separate affidavits informing the court about steps taken by them in this regard. Earlier, the bench had directed the board to collect samples of water from Doodh Pukur, a pond beside the temple, which is also regarded as sacred, following a complaint lodged by environment activist Subhas Dutta. The water of the pond, in which devotees take holy dips and from which the charanamrita is prepared, is polluted, Dutta had alleged. The activist had argued in his petition that sewer water from neighbouring houses drained into the pond. Besides, many devotees came to the temple with infectious diseases and bathed in the pond with the hope that it will cure them of all ailments, he said. Subsequently, the green bench had asked the Tarakeshwar municipality last year to seal all sewer outlets leading to the pond. The bench also asked the civic body to ensure that the pond becomes pollution-free. The municipality submitted a report to the court saying all necessary steps in this regard had been taken. Last month, Dutta again moved court, alleging that municipality authorities had misled the court as they had not taken any steps to make Doodh Pukur pollution-free. The green bench of the high court then asked the PCB to analyse the water of the pond and the charanamrita. PCB officials then visited Tarakeshwar temple and Doodh Pukur and collected samples of the pond water and charanamrita. 'Profuse algal growth has been observed in the pond. High algal growth has adverse effect on the aquatic life and, thereby, has the potential of causing ecological imbalance,' the report said. 'Moreover, local people also dump their household wastes in the pond. Out of five selected points from where the samples were collected, the water is worst at Rajbari Ghat as far as total coliform count is concerned,' the PCB report added.