Bihar: the bodies of suspected Covid-19 victims abandoned in the Ganges

Over a hundred corpses carried by the current in the Buxar district after being in the water for days. According to local authorities they are from Uttar Pradesh, where there is no longer room in the crematoria. WARNING: the article contains images that may hurt the sensitivity of some readers

Mumbai (AsiaNews) - Over a hundred corpses of Covid-19 victims floating on the waters of the Ganges. In the seemingly endless devastation caused by the pandemic in India, news of the latest horror and offense to the dignity of the people arrived from the state of Bihar.

Videos of the bodies of suspected Covid-19 victims floating on the Mahadev bank of the Ganges River, near the village of Chausa in the Buxar district, are circulating virally on social media. Officials who visited the site claim the corpses may have floated to that point from the eastern districts of Uttar Pradesh, one of the Indian states most affected by the pandemic. Already in the past week in Uttar Pradesh nearly a dozen bodies had been found floating on the Yamuna River, the largest tributary of the Ganges.

The prime minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, whose government is an ally of the Hindu nationalist BJP, reacted to the images by saying that "the corpses belong to Uttar Pradesh". The abandonment in the rivers would be due to the lack of space in the crematoria and improvised pyres. Most are likely to belong to Covid-19 victims.

Eye witness testimonies even speak of stray dogs devouring these abandoned bodies. K.K. Upadhayay, a Buxar district official, explained to the media: “The bodies of the dead are swollen. They appear to have been in the water for at least 5-7 days. It is necessary to ascertain where they come from, probably from Varanasi or Allahabad ".

Meanwhile, the official numbers of the infection also continue to remain high: 329,942 new cases registered in the last 24 hours, a figure slightly down compared to recent days. But it should still be added that Covid-19 is now spreading especially in rural areas, where monitoring of infections is more difficult. On the other hand, yesterday's deaths were 3,876, which raised the total count since the beginning of the pandemic to 249,992.

Even in this tragic situation, the Indian Catholic Church urges the faithful to continue to seek the truth. Father Ivel Mendanha, vice-provincial superior of the Redemptorists, comments in a homily sent to AsiaNews: "The Spirit of truth is at work even today, through doctors, health workers, scientists who produce vaccines. They tell us that "there is a way out of this crisis. We must not listen to those who sow fear, but not even those who rely on superstitions such as the idea that making noise is enough to ward off the virus. No prison, not even in the pandemic, can enslave us, because the spirit of Jesus is among us”.