300 bodies dumped in river during Covid wave, admits Ganga mission chief in new book

Ganga became a dumping ground for those dying of Covid-19 earlier this year with as many as 300 corpses thrown into the river during that time, says Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General (DG) of National Mission for Clean Ganga in his book 'Ganga: Reimagining, Rejuvenating, Reconnecting'.

Hyderabad: Ganga became a dumping ground for those dying of Covid-19 earlier this year with as many as 300 corpses thrown into the river during that time, says a new book 'Ganga: Reimagining, Rejuvenating, Reconnecting' released on Thursday.

The book has been authored by Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General (DG) of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), and Puskal Upadhyaya, an officer in Indian Defence Accounts Service, who has worked with the NMCG.

In its chapter 'Floating Corpses: A River Defiled', the book captures a chilling scenario that had compelled people to dump bodies in the river and how the Ghats in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were flooded with corpses for disposal during the devastating second wave of Covid-19 in the country.

The book explains that poor people did not have the means to meet the huge expenses of last rites to be performed at the burning Ghats along the Ganges in UP and Bihar and, as such, they chose to throw the bodies in the river.

Most cases were reported from Kannauj to Balia in Uttar Pradesh. Whereas, cadavers found floating on the Ganges in Bihar, came from Uttar Pradesh. Bihar didn't report such cases, the book claims.

According to the book, many families had been facing hard times and lost all their savings to meet the medical expenditure. Apart from this, the book also explains that due to 'ignorance' or not knowing how a body should be disposed of during the pandemic, many people threw the bodies in Ganga.

Ironically, Rajiv, a Telangana cadre 1987 batch IAS officer, who has been at the helm of 'Clean Ganga Mission', had himself tested positive for Corona and was undergoing treatment at Medanta Hospital. He learnt about reports of bodies floating in the river while lying on the hospital bed.

On May 11, when Rajiv recovered from the Covid infection, he issued instructions to 59 District Ganga Committees, district magistrates of those districts situated along the Ganges and office-bearers of the Panchayats, to take necessary action and submit the findings at the earliest.