Around 100 bodies wash up on the banks of Ganges; officials suspects Covid 19 deaths

THD NewsDesk, Uttar Pradesh: According to officials, bodies of around 100 individuals have washed up in the banks of the river Ganges. Local media reports suggest that the bodies must be of Covid deaths.

The conditions of the body suggest that they have been in the river for quite a few days now.

A local body officer stated,

“There is a possibility that these bodies have come out of Uttar Pradesh.”

He added that the remains would be either buried or cremated.

According to a report by the media channel NDTV, Officials said the bodies appeared to be bloated and partially burnt, and that they may have ended up in the river as part of the practice of cremating victims of coronavirus along the river Ganges in Uttar Pradesh.

Some local residents suggested that the lack of wood for cremation and the rising costs of the crematory practises are really putting the families in a helpless situation and are forcing them to adopt such harsh means of throwing the bodies of their loved ones in the river.

One resident commented,

“Private hospitals are looting people. Common people are not left with money to pay a priest and spend more on cremation at the river bank. They are asking 2,000 rupees [£20; $27] just to get the corpse out of the ambulance. The river has become their last recourse so people are immersing corpses in the river.”

In the deadly second wave of this pandemic, with death rates touching a new high everyday, crematorium grounds are not left with any space for new bodies.

According to a study by Johns Hopkins University, India has recorded more than 22.6 million coronavirus cases and 246,116 Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic while many suggest that the real data could be much higher.

Source: BBC News