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A30 world news
Dialuna 17 Mei 2021

Hundreds of bodies found buried along Indian riverbanks

(AP) — Police are reach- bank in neighboring Bihar
ing out to villagers in state.
northern India to investi- Authorities performed post
gate the recovery of bod- mortems but said they could
ies buried in shallow sand not confirm the cause of
graves or washed up on death due to decomposition.
the Ganges River banks, A dozen corpses were also
prompting speculation on found last week buried in
social media that they’re sand at two locations on the
the remains of COVID-19 riverbank in Unnao district,
victims. 40 kilometers (25 miles)
southwest of Lucknow, the
In jeeps and boats, police Uttar Pradesh state capital.
used portable loudspeak- District Magistrate Ravindra
ers with microphones ask- Kumar said an investigation
ing people not to dispose of is underway to identify the
bodies in rivers. “We are here cause of death.
to help you perform the last India’s two big states, Ut-
rites,” police said. tar Pradesh and Bihar, with
On Friday, rains exposed the nearly 358 million people in
cloth coverings of bodies total, are among the worst
buried in shallow sand graves hit in the virus surge sweep-
on a wide, flat riverbank in ing through the country with
Prayagraj, a city in Uttar devastating death tolls. Hap-
Pradesh state. While officials less villagers have been rush-
say the riverside burials have ods of religious significance, mated there were at least 300 in Sehgal state have found “a ing the sick to nearby towns
taken place for decades, the and instead disposed of them shallow riverside graves on a small number” of bodies on and cities for treatment,
sheer numbers in the shadow in rivers or by digging graves sand bar near near Prayagraj. the riverbanks, he said, but many of them dying on the
of the pandemic are focusing on riverbanks. Each grave was covered by didn’t give a figure. way, victims of India’s crum-
more attention on the prac- Ramesh Kumar Singh, a an orange, yellow or reddish However, on Sunday, a bling health care.
tice. member of Bondhu Mahal cloth and appeared laid out 30-year-old Buddhist came After hitting record highs for
Navneet Sehgal, a state gov- Samiti, a philanthropic orga- in the same direction. Several to the same riverbank in weeks, the number of new
ernment spokesman, on nization that helps cremate policemen were at the scene, Prayagraj with other fam- cases was stabilizing, said
Sunday denied local me- bodies, said the number of but allowed a family who ar- ily members and buried his Dr. V.K. Paul, a government
dia reports that more than deaths is very high in rural rived in a small truck to bury mother, who he said had died health expert.
1,000 corpses of COVID-19 areas, and poor people have a 75-year-old woman at the of a heart attack. The Health Ministry on
victims had been recovered been disposing of bodies in site. “She was not infected with Sunday reported 311,170
from rivers in the past two the river because of the ex- K.P. Singh, a senior police of- COVID-19,” Vijay Kumar confirmed cases in the past
weeks. “I bet these bodies orbitant cost of performing ficer, said authorities had ear- told the AP, adding that his 24 hours, down from 326,098
have nothing to do with CO- the last rites and a shortage marked a cremation ground religion allows both crema- on Saturday.
VID-19,” he said. of wood. The cost of crema- on the Prayagraj riverbank tion and burial, “but I chose It also reported 4,077 addi-
He said some villagers did tion has tripled up to 15,000 for those who died of CO- burial.” tional deaths, taking the to-
not cremate their dead as is rupees ($210). VID-19, and police were no Health authorities last week tal fatalities to 270,284. Both
customary, due to a Hindu On Saturday, an Associated longer allowing any burials retrieved 71 bodies that figures are almost certainly a
tradition during some peri- Press photojournalist esti- on the riverfront. Authorities washed up on a Ganges River vast undercount, experts say.

Pandemic triggers new crisis in Peru: lack of cemetery space

The same plight is shared by fected person died every four began constructing his “eter-
other families across Peru. minutes at home or in a hos- nal home.” He and his wife
After struggling to control pital, and hospital space has decided to act after watching
the coronavirus pandemic for been so scarce that Peruvians the news and learning that
more than a year, the country have read on social media two dozen neighbors died of
now faces a parallel crisis: a about families offering kid- COVID-19.
lack of cemetery space. The neys, cars or land in exchange “You feel quite worried
problem affects everyone, not for one of the country’s 2,785 when there is nowhere to
just relatives of COVID-19 intensive care beds. take them, and there are no
victims, and some families Even when cemetery space pennies with which to bury
have acted on their own, dig- can be found, burials pose a them,” Coba said.
ging clandestine graves in huge financial burden, espe- Many of Peru’s sprawling
areas surrounding some of cially for families who have cemeteries have grown with
Lima’s 65 cemeteries. fallen into poverty because no development plans or gov-
The desperate lack of options of COVID-19. The cost of ernment approval. They lack
comes as the country en- a burial in a cemetery on the walls or fences and are adja-
dures its deadliest period of edge of Lima is nearly $1,200, cent to irregular settlements,
(AP) — After Joel Bautista live on television, attracting the pandemic yet. More than almost five times the month- making it nearly impossible
died of a heart attack last the attention of authorities 64,300 people who tested ly minimum wage of $244. at times to determine where
month in Peru, his fam- and prompting them to of- positive for COVID-19 have Retired merchant Victor they end and where the im-
ily tried unsuccessfully to fer the family a space on the died in Peru, according to Coba took matters into his poverished communities
find an available grave at rocky slopes of a cemetery. the Health Ministry, but that own hands, building graves begin. Graves are now en-
four different cemeteries. “If there is no solution, then figure is almost certainly an for himself, his wife and four croaching on the settlements.
After four days, they re- there will be a space here,” undercount. A vital records other relatives in a narrow Of Lima’s 65 cemeteries,
sorted to digging a hole in Yeni Bautista told The Asso- agency estimates that the true space in a cemetery at the only 20 have a health license.
his garden. ciated Press, explaining the figure is more than 174,900, foot of a treeless hill in the One on a hidden hill has
family’s decision to dig at the counting those whose pos- north of Lima. been operating for 24 years
The excavation in a poor foot of a tropical hibiscus tree sible infection was not con- Coba, 72, carried bricks, sand and does not require any pa-
neighborhood in the capital after her brother’s body be- firmed by a test. and cement to the site, where perwork for burials, which
city of Lima was broadcast gan to decompose. As recently as April, an in- with help from a friend he cost $361.q