ALLAHABAD, India: Partly hidden between long reeds of grass, bodies shrouded in saffron cloth float silently down the holy Ganges river, a reminder of how India´s ferocious coronavirus wave overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums. Families in India´s north and east gave up the bodies of their loved ones to the river or buried them in shallow graves on its banks, unable to afford the cost of funeral pyres at the height of the outbreak in April and May. But the start of seasonal monsoon flooding has caused strong currents to surge through the 2,500-kilometre (1,550-mile) long waterway, dislodging some of the bodies buried on its banks. Officials in Allahabad — one of Hinduism´s holiest cities, where millions visit to perform funeral rites — say almost 150 bodies that floated up in the past three weeks have been cremated. Funeral pyres line riverside embankments beside piles of wood waiting for new bodies to be retrieved. When media visited the surrounding areas, there were dozens of partially submerged corpses in the river. Officials estimate that up to 600 bodies were buried along the Ganges in the city during the virus surge. But locals believe that is a fraction of the real number and fear that more could be dislodged from the sandy banks by rapid waters in the coming weeks. Sonu Chandel, a boatman who works with a riverside crematorium, was shaken by the sight of families burying their dead two months ago. He said a sense of uneasiness returned to him as the waters rose to cover the banks. “It was really sad to see poor people burying their loved ones in an undignified manner, but the rising water level has made it worse,” Chandel told media. “There is always the fear of (a body) hitting the oar or (my boat) running over a dead body as the water level goes up.”
