World Notes INDIA

Snaking down from a Himalayan ice cave to the Bay of Bengal, the 1,560-mile- long river is called Ganga Ma (Mother Ganges), the holiest of all Hindu streams. Every pious Hindu wishes to be cremated on the Ganges' banks and to bequeath his ashes to her waters.

But piety has led to pollution. Not every family can afford enough firewood for a complete cremation, so thousands of half-charred corpses are dumped into the river each year. "When these bodies decompose," says D. Chakaraborti of the Central Ganges Authority, "they pollute the water to a dangerous level."

The solution: carnivorous softshell turtles. To cleanse the holy river, the state government of Uttar Pradesh is raising hundreds of the reptiles. In mid- 1988 they will be released into a twelve-mile stretch of the Ganges. There they are expected to feed on the dead.

Numerous in the area until man destroyed their nesting sites, the turtles will help reestablish the ecological cycle. Officials say the creatures pose no danger to live users of the Ganges, though the project is not without risks. "Poaching will be our biggest problem," says Rajendra Prakash Sharma, chief wildlife warden of Uttar Pradesh. "Turtle meat is considered a delicacy."