Ma Ganga opens up: Mass bodies seen floating as river water rises

• Image Credit: Internet

• Jun 25, 2021 | moderator

Lucknow: Areas along the Ganges and other major rivers are now revisiting the horrors of the mass bodies floating on the river as the monsoon season and increasing water level thus throwing up challenges for authorities.

Dealing with the mass graves in the sandbanks, suspected to be of covid patients. As the water level rises and the sand banks crumble, the bodies are floating up. Cellphone videos and images shot by local journalists at different ghats in Prayagraj over the last two days showed the authorities fishing out the bodies.

A photograph taken on Wednesday showed a body stuck on the riverbank, a hand covered in white surgical glove jutting out of the saffron shroud. The body was pulled out by a team from the Prayagraj municipal corporation.

A video from another ghat showed two men recover another shroud-covered body from the river and placing it on the sand bank.

Multiple such visuals and ones showing the subsequent cremation, have been obtained by local journalists.

Niraj Kumar Singh, a zonal officer for the Prayagraj Municipal Corporation, told the media he had cremated 40 bodies in the last 24 hours. "We are cremating all bodies individually and following all rituals," Mr Singh said in an interview.

Asked about a body where an oxygen tube could be seen in the mouth of the dead person, Mr Singh admitted that it appeared the person was ill before death.

"You can see that the person was ill, and the family dumped the person here and went away. Maybe they were scared, I cannot say," Mr Singh said. Not all the bodies were decomposed. The condition of some indicated they were freshly buried, he added.