Cover-up Or No Resources, What's Behind Floating Bodies Of Suspected COVID Victims In Ganga?

Over the past few days, India has been watching in horror the bodies of suspected COVID-19 victims floating in the waters of River Ganga.

It is still unclear how many such bodies have been thrown into the river and when did this start. It came to light only after residents along the river spotted the bodies, some decomposed washing ashore.

Since Monday, such cases have been reported from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and both states have been pointing fingers at each other.

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What's happening?

In Bihar's Buxar district alone, the authorities have confirmed that they have retrieved 71 bodies from the river so far.

According to Bihar Water Resources and Information and Public Relations Minister Sanjay Kumar Jha, the authorities have fished out 71 bodies and the last rites have been performed.

He also said that the bodies were 4-5 days old.

"The Bihar Government is seized of the matter of unfortunate case of floating mortal remains in river Ganga, near Chausa village in Buxar district. The bodies have floated into Bihar from UP. Upon postmortem, our doctors have confirmed that these are 4-5 days' old bodies," he said.

Jha said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been pained at both the tragedy as well as harm to the river Ganges.

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"He has always been particular about the purity and uninterrupted flow of the river and has asked the administration to intensify patrolling to ensure this is not repeated. Last rites of 71 bodies performed as per protocols. A net has been placed in Ganges in Ranighat, bordering UP and Bihar. We've advised UP administration to be vigilant; our district administration is keeping vigil too. Advise all to give all respect to those dead, and Maa Ganges," Jha said.

UP locals see over 45 bodies floating

In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, residents of Ballia have claimed that they have seen at least 45 bodies floating at the Ujiyar, Kulhadia and Bharauli ghats in the Narahi area, however, the district authorities have not disclosed the exact number of bodies discovered.

District Magistrate Aditi Singh said that some bodies have been found in very bad condition under the Ballia-Buxar bridge, adding that Subdivisional Magistrate and the circle officer are probing this incident. Singh further noted that funeral rites will be performed.

Initially, it was reported that the bodies were being dumped into the river as the crematoriums were unable to handle the number of corps reaching there every day.

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Many theories on what actually transpired

There were also reports that some bodies were thrown into the river by the crematorium staff due to the shortage of firewood.

There were also some claims that the bodies were pushed into the river by relatives of the victims as they could not afford to pay for the cremation.

However, so far the most controversial allegation has been of cover-up.

For a long time, there have been allegations that the official death toll from COVID-19 is much lesser than what is happening.

Several governments and hospitals have been accused of underreporting deaths from COVID-19.

Hospitals have also been accused of not handing over the bodies to relatives to keep the numbers low.

In Madhya Pradesh, recently there was an incident where a body fell from an ambulance that was hastily leaving a hospital, leading to allegations of a cover-up.

Even in the case of the bodies found floating in Ganga, some had claimed that these were dumped from ambulances.

As COVID-19 makes its way into rural India where testing and treatment for COVID-19 is impossible to find, there is a fear that many are dying of the infection, but are not reported.

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'Strict vigilance along the Ganga'

The Centre asked states along the Ganga to ensure strict vigilance and check future incidences of people dumping bodies in the river and its tributaries.

In a letter to District Ganga Committees which are chaired by district magistrates the National Mission for Clean Ganga also asked the authorities to dispose unidentified bodies of suspected COVID-19 victims in accordance with safety protocols.

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"Ensure strict vigilance along length of the river within territorial jurisdiction of the district to prevent and check such future incidences of people dumping dead bodies in Ganga and its tributaries and of any other activity hazardous for river Ganga and health and hygiene of the area," NMCG Director General Rajiv Ranjan Mishra said in the letter to the chairpersons of the committees.

Mishra said the dumping of bodies/partially dumped bodies/decomposed corpse not only causes pollution in the river, but is also unhygienic and increases the risk of spreading infections in communities inhabiting the banks of rivers.