ONE OF the more innovative ideas that the Ganga Project Directorate (GPD) is pursuing is to revive the use of turtles to keep the river clean. Traditionally, turtles and crocodiles acted as scavengers consuming the corpses and other debris in the water, The once-plentiful soft-shelled turtle (Triunyx gangiticus) is on the verge of extinction now, having been hunted for its meat and skin. The steep drop in their number has resulted in even more filth accumulating in the river.

The UP forest department approached the GPD with a scheme to restore the river's turtle population. The scheme, which won GPD approval, envisaged the collection of the eggs of the soft-shelled turtle, the peacock-shelled turtle, (Triunyx hurum) and the Indian flapshell turtle (Liseemys punctato) from the Charnbal river. After being incubated in breeding centres at Varanasi and Kukrail, near Lucknow, the hatchlings are reared for a year or so in shallow freshwater ponds, marked for identification and then released in the Ganga at Varanasi in a stretch of the river that has been declared a turtle sanctuary. The GPD estimates about 18,000 turtles have been released in the river since 1989.

However, there has been no study yet of the impact of turtles on the river. And, while GPD officials seem thrilled with the project, others are not. Commented S N Upadhyaya of the Sankat Mochan Foundation, "Poaching still takes place. Recently, 150 turtles were recovered from the local railway station. They were being taken to Calcutta for their meat."