![]() They hold flowers in their hands and stand at a distance as volunteers perform the last rites in their place. The family members of some of the dead do not touch the corpses. In Varanasi, the electoral constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, crematorium staff and volunteers like 25-year-old Deepak have been risking their lives to help families of COVID victims follow religious customs to send off their loved ones into the afterlife. READ: In India, Muslims Are Performing Last Rites For Hindus Who Died Of COVID-19 Most families are hesitant to risk infection by cremating their loved ones with Hindu rituals that involve touching the bodies. “I have never seen such a situation in the last 12 years, what used to be 25 bodies daily, became 50 after the eruption of the second wave,” said Raj Narayan, a local in Kannauj. ![]() In Kanpur, eyewitnesses said 100 to 150 bodies washed ashore each day for about two weeks after the second wave struck in April. Locals at Unnao said 15 to 20 bodies have shown up on the riverbank daily since April. In UP, bodies also washed ashore in places like Unnao, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Varanasi and Kannauj. India has officially recorded 341,000 COVID deaths and 26.6 million recoveries out of a total of 28.6 million cases reported as of June 4, but observers say the real figure is likely several times higher.Īs deaths surged, the Uttar Pradesh (UP) police chief claimed that only 39 bodies were recovered along the banks of the Ganga (the local name for the Ganges), negating media reports that at least 2,000 bodies washed up on the banks and the discovery of dozens of unmarked graves. But during the months-long surge of deaths, cremation expenses soared along with unemployment, and many more of India’s poor are burying bodies in the sand despite the Hindu custom to cremate. Those who can afford cremation scatter their loved one’s ashes into the water, while the poor often wrap bodies in muslin and release them floating on planks. Before the recording, Indian social media and Whatsapp groups were flooded with thousands of images of corpses wrapped in saffron shrouds and buried in shallow graves along the riverbank of the Ganges, a river holy to Hindus and often a site of funeral rites. You are on your own," he said.SRINAGAR- In June, a shocking video surfaced on Twitter showing the body of a COVID victim flung into a river in Uttar Pradesh, a state in north India. Kumar said when his mother, a government healthcare worker, tested positive 10 days ago, the authorities could not find a hospital bed for her. On Tuesday, 78 bodies were cremated in that one place alone, he said. Shunty, dressed in protective gear and a bright yellow turban, said last year during the peak of the first wave the maximum number of bodies he helped cremate in a single day was 18, while the average was eight to 10 a day. It's difficult to watch," said a teary-eyed Shunty. Children who were 5 years old, 15 years old, 25 years old are being cremated. "No one in Delhi would have ever witnessed such a scene. ![]() Jitender Singh Shunty who runs a non-profit medical service, the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal, said as of Thursday afternoon 60 bodies had been cremated at the makeshift facility in the parking lot and 15 others were still waiting. People losing loved ones in the Indian capital, where 306 people have died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, are turning to makeshift facilities that are undertaking mass burials and cremations as crematoriums come under pressure. In Delhi alone, where hospitals are running out of medical oxygen supplies, the daily rise is over 26,000. India recorded the world's highest daily tally of 314,835 coronavirus infections on Thursday, with the second wave of the pandemic crushing its weak health infrastructure. one said it had run out of wood," said Kumar, wearing a mask and squinting his eyes that were stinging from the smoke blowing from the burning pyres. "I ran pillar to post but every crematorium had some reason.
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