Dead Bodies Piled Up Along Riverbanks in India
Barkha raised a question in her post that why the government has turned a blind eye towards the dead bodies lying half decomposed along the riverbanks
Journalist Barkha Dutt revealed in her recent posts on Twitter that how India and its population is dealing with the dead bodies amid the second and the deadliest covid-19 wave.
She visited different cities in India and compiled a detailed report about the unidentified dead bodies that were abandoned by their loved ones during covid-19 crisis.
Barkha raised a question in her post that why the government has turned a blind eye towards the corpses lying half decomposed along the riverbanks.
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“How we are not counting our covid dead in rural India. Does this not raise questions for the peaks we claim are plateauing?”, she penned down.
The journalist visited Suzabad village in Varanasi state and interviewed the residents of the area.
One of the citizens informed that the corpses were floating half decomposed in the river and later buried in the soil with help of machinery.
“The bodies were in a vile condition when fetched up at the river bank”, he told.
From Varanasi’s Sujabad village where half decomposed bodies floated in the Ganga, I report for @themojostory on how we are not counting our COVID dead in rural India. Does this not raise questions for the peaks we claim are plateuing. More here: https://t.co/bgq7M1ej6P pic.twitter.com/i8fKPjJqTD
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) May 18, 2021
The video also showed several open graves and countless bodies of unidentified deceased.
Apart from Suzabad, Barkha also visited Prayagraj where bodies were piled up in the sandpits of Sangam, a confluence of three rivers.
She interviewed a Hindu cleric who informed that nearly 70 to 80 bodies appear at the river daily and there is no trace of their families or whoever responsible to abandon them without performing the last rituals.
And from Prayagraj where too bodies pile up in the sandpits of the Sangam, I report for @themojostory as the Pandit on the ground warns of a new public health crisis amid floating corpses in the rivers. Will these rural deaths be factored in our projections and declines pic.twitter.com/CdP9EzU6HJ
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) May 18, 2021
He went on to explain that the people scared of covid-19 refrained from cremating their loved ones.
Apart from this, during the pandemic, cremation costs are touching the skies which has been a major reason people are leaving the bodies to float in the river.
“India’s history will never count the rural covid deads”, a local asserted.
Barkha along with the cleric was of the view that the Indian government is not taking notice of the dead lying on the banks without being added to the death toll.
