The bodies of the dead are thrown into the Ganges or buried on the banks of the sacred river

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May 16, 2021

In the last 24 hours in India, 311,170 new infections of covid-19 have been recorded and more than 4 thousand deaths.

The latest data come as fears rise for a spread of the infection even in rural areas where there are few health infrastructures.

The new wave of infections that spread to large cities in April led to the collapse of hospitals.

But now there are more and more reports of people falling ill in villages, with the bodies of the dead being thrown into the Ganges or buried on the banks of the holy river.

The Indian army, in collaboration with the railways, is preparing to set up field hospitals in the most vulnerable areas, the broadcaster Ndtv reports.

70% of India's 1.3 billion people live in rural areas.

Over 2,000 bodies abandoned along the Ganges


The devastating second wave of Covid-19 is turning into a horror story in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state. A few days after the macabre discovery of a hundred corpses floating in the Ganges in Bihar, various reports in newspapers in English and Hindi revealed that more than two thousand bodies were found half-buried in the sand, or abandoned along the banks of the river, some hundreds of kilometers further south. Bodies already decomposed that the rains and currents are likely to drag on again. The media showed photos and videos of expanses of corpses from at least six districts, the most affected by the pandemic.

The Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar revealed that more than 900 bodies were found in Unnao alone, half-buried near the crematorium. Several relatives of the deceased admitted to The Indian Express newspaper that they have no money to pay for the costs of cremation, the latest ritual that accompanies people of Hindu faith, the cost of which has risen exponentially in recent weeks: "For a cremation three quintals of wood are needed, which normally costs 600 rupees per quintal (8 euros) but now the price has doubled ", they explain. "Adding the fee to the priest and the offerings, a cremation also costs 10,000 rupees".

"We had to use boats to push the bodies found onto the sand," Kamla Devi Dom, who works at the Unnao crematorium, told the Hindustan Times. "The river here bends and the current has accumulated them all in the bend".

District authorities ordered the bodies to be settled as soon as possible by cremating them, or burying them deeply, and Governor Adityanath ordered Civil Defense and Police to organize surveillance to prevent the bodies from being abandoned on the banks. Bihar, where the first corpses were recovered, instead placed nets to stop the journey of the bodies that fluctuate, following the current; the population was warned not to get wet and not to draw water, which could be contaminated. And while panic is spreading in the country, Rahul Gandhi attacked the Premier, who defined himself as "summoned by the river": "The one who said he was called by Mother Ganga, today made her cry," he tweeted.