India tries to solve mystery of hundreds of corpses that have appeared in the Ganges

SUJABAD, India – The sun was barely rising over the Ganges, but in the midst of the twilight someone saw several bodies floating in the water, near the shore.. It was two weeks ago, and the bodies that appeared in this small community bordering Sukhabad would be the first of the rest. hundreds of corpses found in the area, floating in the Ganges or buried in the sand, since the India breaks coronavirus death records.

On that day, Darsan Nishad, a 35-year-old man who works in an environmental program, was part of the team tasked with removing eight already swollen bodies from the water and transporting them for examination and then cremation, the last rite. formal. practiced by the majority of the population, Indian Hindu.

“We had no idea where they came from. We didn’t know if they had been sick, ”Nishad recalls, pointing to a bend in the river where they had done their dark work. Shocked by his life, Nishad appealed to his faith in the Ganges, which Hindus worship as a sacred source of purity and protection.

“These waters are sacred to all of us. According to our convictions, you only need to dive once in the Ganges to be protected for life “Nishad says, a few feet from several scorched and charred pits in the sand, as the water on the shore cradles pieces of wood, bamboo and cloth from recent cremations. “This water is our goddess.”

The mystery surrounding the corpses has not been resolved and it is not known how many of them were infected with coronavirus. But many believe families resorted to extreme measures because they couldn’t afford the cremation of loved ones, a ritual that cost $ 70 but has skyrocketed to $ 400 since late last month, when the second wave of the virus hit. in India.

In Sukhabad, a community of dirty alleys and canvas-roofed shacks that depend on the Ganges for their livelihood, many are now out of work. Boatmen who took pilgrims and tourists to the river have had to stay ashore because of the lockdown, and fishermen fear the bodies will contaminate their prey. The only ones who succeed wonderfully, when they perish, are the loggers, who sell the essential inputs for the funeral pyres.

As India struggles to contain a further rise in coronavirus cases, the dramatic toll – nearly 4,000 a day since the end of April and more than 4,500 new cases a day this week, a number surely lower than the actual number – has ended up punishing and sinking the economy of many localities in the country. Like the bodies found in the Ganges – they died of Covid-19, heart attacks or natural death due to age – the inhabitants of these riverside communities are also victims of the virus.

The gruesome images of half-buried and floating bodies forced government officials to act. Patrollers have been dispatched throughout the Ganges, which winds over 2,400 kilometers across northern India, and national and local authorities have opened free cremation centers, where families of the bereaved are provided with firewood. and a free religious service.

Several of these sites operate in Varanasi, a historic coastal town 25 kilometers from Sukhabad, with majestic stone steps called “ghats” that descend to the Holy Ganges. Usually the ghats are filled with Hindus who go to bathe, baptize their children and scatter the ashes of their dead. Now the ghats are almost empty, but the public crematoriums are full day and night.

This week, in one of the crematoria, a group of men watched in anguish as the Hindu priest lit the wooden pyre on an iron platform, as they sang a prayer for his mother, who died in the morning. even in a hospital. The woman did not die from Covid, but her children could not afford the current astronomical price of firewood and other funeral costs.

The priest, Satindra Kumar, seemed exhausted from so many days conducting funeral rites. “In the last two days I have had 15 ceremonies, most were coronavirus cases from the hospital, but other people are coming as well,” says Kumar. “This pandemic is devastating. The government is failing to help rural areas. People are afraid and in pain, and some even say that the virus is more powerful than God. I cannot stop it, but I will continue to pray, and I hope it will bring some peace to the families. “.

In central Varanasi, a city of about 1 million people, authorities have set up a coronavirus control center, with groups of workers who answer phone calls, monitor the status of isolated patients, ask for ambulances for those in need; to be hospitalized and organize cremations. On the wall, a giant screen displays constantly updated information on the number of free beds, the availability of oxygen and the sources of new cases of coronavirus.

But in rural areas, residents who lose loved ones to coronavirus or other causes need to do without these services. Despite the exorbitant costs, many still go to the ghats to give the corresponding Hindu blessing to the dead and say they bear the financial burden of following ancient traditions..

This week, a group of neighbors mourning the loss of three female relatives approached one of the city’s oldest ghats and prepared an offering of spicy rice balls wrapped in leaves, under the watchful eye of a priest. After blessing them, the man descended the stone steps, placed the offerings on the surface of the water and scattered the ashes of the deceased.

Later, the group of farmers – who had already had to pay for the three cremations – returned to pay for the ceremony by the river. The men nervously counted the rupee bills they had collected together, adding the cost of a hairdresser, photographer, fees and souvenirs for the attendees. The priest kept the tickets, and the men began to return to the city, resigned to the enormous cost of performing their religious task in a time of uncertainty, death and fear in the face of an invisible force and murderous.

“Several generations of our people have come here for the last rite, which is sacred to us,” says Lakshmi Singh, a farmer in his sixties. “We haven’t seen a lot of coronavirus cases because we’re isolated in the mountains. But we are not afraid of it. We make our offerings in the Ganges, just like our ancestors, and this protects us. “

Translation of Jaime Arrambide

The Washington Post

The Washington Post