Warning: Graphic images
Flooding in India has uncovered the shallow graves of hundreds of coronavirus victims.
Ground has washed away to reveal countless partially submerged bodies and dozens more corpses floating down the Ganges.
Officials estimating that up to 600 people were buried along the river – but locals believe the true number is far higher.
The latest horror to hit the country comes after Covid-19 brutally swept through and overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums, with India’s official death toll now approaching 400,000.
Corpses in saffron cloth have been floating silently down the river and boaters say they fear hitting them with their oars.
Families in India’s north and east unable to afford the cost of funeral pyres gave up the bodies of their loved ones to the river or buried them in shallow graves on its banks at the height of the outbreak in April and May.
But the start of seasonal monsoon flooding has dislodged many of the bodies, leading to horrifying scenes of graves being uncovered,
Officials in Allahabad – one of Hinduism’s holiest cities, where millions visit to perform funeral rites – say almost 150 bodies that floated up in the past three weeks have been cremated.
Funeral pyres line riverside embankments beside piles of wood waiting for new bodies to be retrieved.
When journalists from AFP visited the surrounding areas, they saw dozens of partially submerged corpses in the river.
Locals fear hundreds more bodies could be dislodged from the sandy banks by rapid waters in the coming weeks.
Sonu Chandel, a boatman who works with a riverside crematorium, was shaken by the sight of families burying their dead two months ago.
He said a sense of uneasiness returned to him as the waters rose to cover the banks.
‘It was really sad to see poor people burying their loved ones in an undignified manner, but the rising water level has made it worse’, Mr Chandel explained.
‘There is always the fear of (a body) hitting the oar or (my boat) running over a dead body as the water level goes up.’
Other major religious centres in northern India, such as the hub of Varanasi further downstream, have experienced similar issues.
Locals fear the corpses, if not removed, risk further contaminating what is already one of the world’s most polluted waterways.
Dipin Kumar, who lives near the Ganges in Allahabad, said: ‘This could cause dangerous diseases.
Who coupled up tonight during the launch of Love Island 2021?‘The government must think this over and only they can make a plan.’
Seen as the holiest river in India, the ‘Mother Ganga’ is worshipped as a goddess by Hindus and viewed as the giver and taker of life.
Pilgrims flock to the Ganges for ritual bathing, and even before the pandemic, millions of Hindus cremated their dead along its banks before scattering the ashes in the river.
Some who could not afford wood or other materials for funeral rites have been known to submerge the bodies of their loved ones instead, while others conducted water burials as part of their religious traditions.
Locals said funerals – which can cost around £70 – were adding to the hardships of those already struggling to make ends meet in the already battered economy.
Officials have stationed two boats along the banks to retrieve the corpses – sometimes with help from local fishermen – but have had little success in recent days.
State disaster teams and police already patrol the river looking for bodies.
One officer warned: ‘The flow is very fast and it is a challenge to fish out bodies now.’
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