In UPs Prayagraj, Mass Graves Open Up As Water Rises In Ganga

In UP's Prayagraj, as the water level in Ganga rises with the monsoon and the sand banks crumble, the dead bodies are floating up. Niraj Kumar Singh, a local civic official, said he had cremated 40 such bodies in the last 24 hours.

The advancing monsoon and the increasing water level in Ganga in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj town have thrown up a challenge for authorities: Dealing with the mass graves in the sandbanks, suspected to be of Covid patients. As the water level rises and the sand banks crumble, the bodies are floating up. Cellphone videos and images shot by local journalists at different ghats in Prayagraj over the last two days showed the authorities fishing out the bodies. A photograph taken on Wednesday showed a body stuck on the riverbank, a hand covered in white surgical glove jutting out of the saffron shroud. The body was pulled out by a team from the Prayagraj municipal corporation. A video from another ghat showed two men recover another shroud-covered body from the river and placing it on the sand bank. Multiple such visuals and ones showing the subsequent cremation, have been obtained by local journalists.