Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the reported appearance of more than 1,000 corpses washed up on riverbanks. State officials have refuted suggestions it is related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Family members pray during a service to remember their loved one by the banks of the River GangesImage: Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP/picture alliance
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Indian police on Sunday were reaching out to villagers in the north of the country after hundreds of corpses were found in shallow sand graves or washed up on the banks of the the Ganges River.
Recent reports of large numbers of people falling ill in villages, and then putting dead bodies in the river, comes as COVID-19 has seemingly spread to India's rural hinterland, where 70% of its 1.3 billion people live.
Police used loudspeakers as they roamed in jeeps and boats, asking people not to dispose of corpses in the water. "We are here to help you perform the last rites,'' police said.
On Friday, heavy rains exposed the cloth coverings of bodies buried in shallow graves on a riverbank in Prayagraj, a city in Uttar Pradesh state. While officials say the riverside burials have taken place for decades, the high numbers in the shadow of the pandemic are focusing more attention on the practice.
Hundreds of bodies have been found washed up on the Ganges River banks in northern IndiaImage: Prabhat Kumar Verma/Zumapress/picture alliance
Police sure washed-up bodies not related to COVID
Navneet Sehgal, a state government spokesman, refuted suggestions that the discovery of more than 1,000 corpses in the area over the last two weeks had anything to do with India's deadly second wave of the coronavirus. "I bet these bodies have nothing to do with COVID-19," he said.
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Ramesh Kumar Singh, a member of Bondhu Mahal Samiti, a philanthropic organization that helps cremate bodies, said the number of fatalities is extremely high in rural areas, and poor people have been disposing of bodies in the river because of the exorbitant cost of performing the last rites.
COVID in India: Life goes on as bodies pile up
As India records high daily death tolls, the second wave of the coronavirus has shown no sign of slowing down. However, for many, life goes on amid the sea of tragedy.
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Social distancing, a farce?
People — many without masks — shop at a vegetable market in Mumbai. India has been struggling to contain a massive coronavirus outbreak, with nearly 24 million infections recorded to date. The country has logged around 260,000 deaths linked to the virus. According to medical experts, these numbers are vastly underreported.
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Shortage of essential supplies
A young man unloads empty oxygen cylinders for refilling in Srinagar, Kashmir. India's health infrastructure has been under severe stress in recent days, with several states reeling under the shortage of medical oxygen, essential drugs, beds, health workers and vaccines, among other vital supplies.
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Crematoriums overrun by bodies
Volunteers at a nonprofit organization carry bags full of unclaimed ashes belonging to COVID-19 victims at a crematorium in New Delhi. As the intense second coronavirus wave grips India, apocalyptic scenes of mass cremations have emerged, as queues of bodies wait outside overwhelmed crematoriums.
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Disregarding scientific evidence
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Concern over new variants
A worker carries bricks on her head in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the B.1.617 coronavirus variant — first detected in India last October — as a "variant of concern." Epidemiologists note that this variant may be more resistant to vaccines.
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No nationwide lockdown
Policemen check the credentials of delivery personnel from India's leading food delivery service, Zomato, in the southern city of Kochi. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has refused to announce a nationwide lockdown over economic concerns, several states have imposed strict restrictions and nighttime curfews to curb spread of the virus.
Image: R S Iyer/AP/picture alliance
Scramble to reach home
A woman arrives at a bus stand in Jaipur to leave for her hometown, after authorities in the western state of Rajasthan announced a lockdown. Many people have left bigger cities for their towns and villages in order to avoid a repeat of the massive migrant crisis that accompanied India's first coronavirus lockdown last year.
Image: Vishal Bhatnagar/NurPhoto/picture alliance
Living with the virus?
A young man is seen carrying cans of beer as liquor shops in several districts of Uttar Pradesh are reopened. The northern state, led by Modi ally Yogi Adityanath, has registered one of the largest outbreaks in the country. In recent days, several bodies have washed up on the shores of the river Ganges, which runs through the state. Many believe that they belong to victims of the virus.
Image: Pradeep Gaur/SOPA/Zuma/picture alliance
Politics amid pandemic
Catholic nuns wear protective face masks as they wait to cast their votes outside a polling station in Kolkata. The government has been under fire for holding regional elections and massive rallies during a time when the country was descending into chaos over the new surge. Since the onset of the pandemic, West Bengal state has recorded more than 1.05 million infections so far.
Image: Rupak De Chowdhuri/REUTERS
A long road ahead
A man dressed as a clown sprays disinfectant outside a house in Mumbai. He told Reuters that he wears other different costumes aside from dressing up as a clown to raise awareness and spread information about the coronavirus. Many in India fear that the second wave is far from stemmed and if the virus spreads unabated, mass grief and mourning may soon be replaced by apathy.
Image: Francis Mascarenhas/REUTERS
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Health authorities last week found 71 bodies washed up by the Ganges River in Bihar state.
Authorities performed post-mortems but said they could not confirm the cause of death due to decomposition.
Around a dozen bodies were also found washed up last week at two locations on the riverbank in Unnao district, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh state capital.
Hard-hit Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with nearly 358 million people in total, are among the worst hit states in India following the arrival of the country's deadly second wave of the coronavirus.
India on Sunday reported 311,170 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours and over 4,000 deaths amid rising concern over the spread of the pandemic to rural areas which are ill-equipped to handle the virus.
Nevertheless, after registering record high numbers for several weeks in India, the number of new coronavirus cases was stabilizing, said Dr. V.K. Paul, a government health expert.
