Swelling Ganges opens up Uttar Pradesh's riverside graves

Municipal workers search for bodies along the Ganges riverbank after monsoon rains swelled up the river and exposed bodies buried in shallow sand graves during the peak of the latest wave of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Phaphamau on the outskirts of Prayagraj, India, June 25, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Ritesh Shukla

Prayagraj: More corpses are washing up on the banks of the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh, as rains swell the river and expose bodies buried in shallow graves during the peak of the India's latest wave of coronavirus infections.

Videos and pictures in May of bodies drifting down the river, which Hindus consider holy, shocked the nation and underlined the ferocity of the world's biggest surge in infections.

Though cases have come down drastically this month, the Uttar Pradesh city of Prayagraj alone has cremated 108 bodies found in the river in the last three weeks, said a senior municipal official.

"These are those dead bodies which were buried very close to the river and have gone into it with the rise in its water levels," Neeraj Kumar Singh told Reuters.

"The municipal corporation has deployed a team of 25 people who are working day and night on this front."

Members of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) patrol in the Ganges river past burning pyres of bodies that washed up on its banks after monsoon rains swelled it and exposed shallow sand graves dug during the peak of the latest COVID-19 wave in Phaphamau on the outskirts of Prayagraj, India, June 25, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Ritesh Shukla

Reuters saw more than a dozen riverside pyres burning a few miles from Prayagraj.

India, the world's second most populous country, saw its health infrastructure crushed in April and May. Hospitals ran out of beds and life-saving oxygen and crematoriums became overwhelmed with the dead.

A municipal worker cremates bodies that washed up on the Ganges riverbank after monsoon rains swelled the river and exposed bodies buried in shallow sand graves during the peak of the latest wave of COVID-19 in Phaphamau on the outskirts of Prayagraj, India, June 25, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Ritesh Shukla

The government of Uttar Pradesh, home to 240 million people, acknowledged in May that bodies of COVID-19 victims were being dumped into rivers in a practice likely stemming from poverty and families abandoning victims for fear of the disease.

"Instructions have been passed to every district magistrate to cremate the dead bodies with proper respect," said Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson Navneet Sehgal.

A municipal worker walks past shallow sand graves, some of which are suspected to have died from COVID-19, on the Ganges riverbank in Phaphamau, on the outskirts of Prayagraj, India, June 25, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Ritesh Shukla

"There are dead bodies buried on the river bank and it is because of a local tradition."

The state reported 224 COVID-19 infections overnight, taking its total caseload to 1.7 million, while total fatalities are at 22,366.

A municipal worker cremates bodies that washed up on the Ganges riverbank after monsoon rains swelled the river, exposing shallow sand graves dug during the peak of the latest COVID-19 wave in Phaphamau, on the outskirts of Prayagraj, India, June 25, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Ritesh Shukla
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