Day after dozens of bodies, bloated and in various stages of decay, washed up on Monday on the banks of the Ganga in Chausa block of Bihar’s Buxar district, similar sightings were reported on the banks of the river in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh.
Day after dozens of bodies, bloated and in various stages of decay, washed up on Monday on the banks of the Ganga in Chausa block of Bihar’s Buxar district, similar sightings were reported on the banks of the river in Ghazipu district of Uttar Pradesh.
The bodies are suspected to be those of Covid-19 patients who were dumped in the river, revealing the scale of Covid emergency in India.
Ghazipur District Magistrate MP Singh said an investigation has been initiated to figure out where the bodies have come from. "We got the information, our officers are present on the spot and an investigation is underway. We are trying to find out where they came from," Ghazipur DM MP Singh said.
In Bihar's Buxar, dozens of bodies, all decomposed, washed up on the banks of the Ganga, triggering panic among the locals.
The locals have said that it is a common sight nowadays as people have started immersing the bodies of their relatives into the river as the overwhelmed crematoriums, handling a number of bodies every day, are running out of firewood.
Speaking with India Today TV, locals said following the Hindu cremation rituals, people either burn their dead or immerse the bodies in the river. Due to the lack of firewood at the crematoriums owing to the rise in Covid-related deaths, the people immersed them in the river.
While there is no certainty where the bodies were dumped into the river -- Bihar or Uttar Pradesh -- the local administration believes the bodies floated down from Uttar Pradesh. Many local residents claimed that the district administration was "in denial over many such unfortunate incidents involving residents of Buxar".
Buxar SDO KK Upadhayay told the media that they need to investigate where they are from, "which town in UP - Bahraich or Varanasi or Allahabad."
They alleged that those manning cremation ghats were charging a fortune whenever people reached there with the body of a near and dear one who died of the coronavirus. "So many bereaved family members are impelled to immerse the bodies of their departed relatives in the river," one of the villagers was quoted as saying by PTI.
Similar sightings at a border village in Ghazipur district were reported. Ghazipur DM Mangla Prasad Singh confirmed the finding of the bodies and said this matter had come to his notice. He said he has sent an investigation team to probe the matter.
The river separates Bihar from UP. Geographically, there are dozens of villages in the Sevrai and Zamania tehsils of Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh. While there is Bara and Gahmar in Ghazipur (UP) on one bank, Chausa (Bihar) is on the other.
People immerse the bodies in the middle stream of the river and due to the low current in the river, the decomposed bodies have washed up on the banks.
Meanwhile, local residents in Hamirpur district spotted five bodies floating in the Yamuna, creating a scare that these were of Covid patients, an apprehension dismissed by the authorities. The resident had spotted the bodies, including a half-burnt corpse, under a bridge on the Yamuna on May 6.
"After speaking to people and looking at the bodies, prima facie, it can be said these were not of Covid-19 patients as these were draped in a traditional manner and no body was wrapped as done in the case of Covid-19 victims," District Magistrate Gyaneshwar Tripathi said in a statement.
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