Bodies spotted in river Ganga, trigger panic across Ghazipur villages in Varanasi

VARANASI: The rush of bodies at the Manikarnika and Harischandra ghats in Varanasi has eased as Covid cases and casualties have come down, but a sudden increase in sighting of bodies in the Ganga in downstream district Ghazipur on the interstate border near Buxar district of Bihar has sparked panic among locals.
Ghazipur officials swung into action after bodies were found near Chausaghat, Buxar following which officials of Bihar claimed the corpses had flowed down from UP.
As villagers panicked suspecting threat of outbreak of epidemic due to rotting bodies and sounded alarm, the district magistrates of Ghazipur and Buxar rushed SDMs, Ramesh Maurya of Sevarai and K K Pathak of Buxar for fact finding.
During inspection, seven bodies were spotted in river Karmnasha before its confluence in Ganga on Ghazipur-Buxar border.
DM Ghazipur M P Singh said, “All the bodies are heavily decayed and are suspected to have been disposed of days ago. It is difficult to trace from where bodies were disposed of in rivers, but we have asked police to find out whether villagers of our district are doing so.”
“We are telling people that bodies are not to be disposed of in rivers, but have to be cremated. If they are not capable in cremating a body due to financial hardships or any other reason, they should inform police and local administration as funds and resources are available for this,” Singh added.
Divisional commissioner Deepak Agrawal said, “Vigil has been increased after bodies were found floating in rivers. Our teams are on the ground and there is no major surge in Covid cases or fatalities in rural areas now.”
Besides carrying out massive screening of rural population, collecting samples and distributing medicine kits to symptomatic persons, the monitoring of cremation grounds has also started, he added.
Meanwhile, the situation at cremation ghats in Varanasi has improved. BHU neurologist Prof V N Mishra said, “From April 10, the number of bodies coming to Harischandra and Manikarnika ghats had increased, but after May 3, things are normal.”
Gulshan Kapoor, manager of Mahashamshan Nath temple at Manikarnika Ghat said, “In normal days, 80-100 bodies come here, but the figure had increased threefold after April first week.”