This is a tragic story of the stripping away of human dignity even after death. A spell of summer rain, washed away some sand along the river, revealing even more bodies that were buried there. Are these ‘mass graves’ said to be nearly 900, and with those retrieved from the river itself the number is stated to be close to 2,000 at last count, of Covid-19 victims? No official word has come on that yet, however. But one thing is clear, these people, who probably died for want of timely medical intervention, were denied basic human dignity even in death. 

According to a report in The Asian Age, the Union Home Ministry has revealed that around 2,000 bodies “have been retrieved from the Ganga by various district administrations in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the last one week or so”. According to officials who seem to have spoken to the media off the record, “These bodies are most likely of Corona patients who died in remote villages along the Ganga”. Video news reports over the past few days have shown that apart from bloated corpses floating in the river, then washing shore, there are hundreds of mass graves, dug shallow, along a large stretch of river bank in Uttar Pradesh. Some of the bodies have floated into Bihar as the two states lie along the same Ganga river bank. Locals are heard in various reports telling the media that most of these burials and dumping in the river seem to have been done at night, perhaps by families who are too poor to even afford the wood needed for a proper cremation, and other funeral rites.

It has been reported that the Union home ministry “is in close touch” with governments of both Uttar Pradesh and Bihar “to ensure that dumping of bodies in the Ganga is checked immediately as this could lead to further spread of the Corona pandemic in the two states.” 

As the news of dead bodies being found in such a way went viral, UP’s Chief Minister Adityanath ordered patrolling of the river and river bank by the PAC and SDRF, reported Times Now. According to the report, the CM “has also suggested that the villages should form committees including village development officers and village heads to monitor and ensure that no one dumps bodies in rivers”. Other video reports showed policemen riding in a boat on the river alerting people not to dump bodies in the river, and to approach the authorities if they cannot afford a funeral. 

However, as the case has been so far, people are scared of the police in Uttar Pradesh, as seen in visuals and social media altercations on people who were taking oxygen cylinders for family members suffering from Covid-19. In the rural areas the ‘fear’ of the ‘uniform’ is anyone’s guess.

The Asian Age quoted Ministry sources saying this mass dumping of bodies was “noticed largely in four districts of Kanpur, Ghazipur, Unnao and Balia” and from here bodies were also going downstream into Bihar. While both states “have been asked to take immediate corrective steps” according to the news report, there is not much clarity on what those steps are.

According to other media reports around 71 more bodies had washed ashore on the Ganga river banks at Chausa village, more were found buried shallow, or just abandoned along the other banks of the Ganga. The Dainik Bhaskar, reported that more than 900 dead bodies had been buried along the river in Unnao alone , around 350 in Kannauj, 400 in Kanpur, and 280 in Ghazipur. 

The National Human Rights Commission had recently issued notices to the Central, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar governments about bodies found floating in the Ganga. According to media reports the NHRC issued notices to the chief secretaries of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and the secretary of the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation of the Jal Shakti Ministry. They have been asked to file a report to the NHRC within four weeks. 

The NHRC observed that the public authorities failed to make concerted efforts in educating people and preventing the immersion of bodies into the Ganga. The NHRC added, “The practice of disposal of dead bodies in our sacred river Ganga is clearly in violation of guidelines of the National Mission for Clean Ganga project of Ministry of Jal Shakti.” The commission was responding to a complaint that “expressed apprehensions that these bodies were of Covid-19 victims,” stated reports, adding that even if “the bodies were not of those affected by Covid-19, the incidents were shameful to society and amounted to a violation of the rights of the deceased.”

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