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A Time to Kill
Hindus seek to have their ashes scattered along the Ganges.
But as a scientist, Mishra cannot forget what he knows about the conditions of the river water. Up in the temple complex behind him, as he sits cross-legged in front of the water saying his prayers, stands a state-of-the-art laboratory where bacteria cultures are being grown in special incubators that measure the level of pathogens at various points along the river. In some places at Varanasi the fecal coliform count has been known to reach the astronomical level of 170 million bacteria per 100 milliliters of water, a terrifying 340,000 times the acceptable level of 500 bacteria per 100 milliliters. Similar levels are routinely registered at all the major cities along the river, which starts in the Himalayas in Nepal, flows fourteen hundred miles through India and Bangladesh, and empties into the Bay of Bengal at Calcutta.