Net Across Ganges To Catch India Covid-19 Corpses

The discovery of 71 corpses in Biharstoked fears that the virus was raging unseen in India's vast rural hinterland where two-thirds of its people live.

Authorities in northern India said they have installed a net across the Ganges river after the bodies of dozens of suspected Covid-19 victims washed up. The discovery of 71 corpses in Bihar stoked fears that the virus was raging unseen in India's vast rural hinterland where two-thirds of its people live. Locals suggested to AFP that relatives immersed the bodies in the river because they could not afford wood for traditional Hindu cremations or because crematoriums were overwhelmed by the number of funerals. Bihar's water resources minister Sanjay Kumar said on Twitter on Wednesday that a "net has been placed" in the river on the state border with Uttar Pradesh and patrolling increased.