TV-PG
S1 • E2 May 3, 20128.3
The Ganges is the longest river in India. It flows from the glaciers of the world’s highest mountains, the Himalayas, to the largest bay in the world, the Bay of Bengal. Human pollution threatens to overwhelm the river, but somehow wild animals survive. Hindus believe that Ganges water has the power to purify, and it seems there is some scientific evidence to support this conviction: microscopic organisms actually eat bacteria that could cause disease, and uniquely high level levels of oxygen break down organic waste faster than any in other river. This self-cleaning property of Ganges water helps support some of the last remaining true wilderness in the world – the Sundarbans swamp. Here, India’s largest population of wild tigers have never learned to fear man, making them very dangerous neighbours.
