Floods force halt to cremations
Hundreds have died and millions affected by rain-swollen rivers
India’s holy city of Varanasi has been forced to halt cremations along the banks of the sacred river Ganges as deadly floods from monsoon rains hit parts of the country, an official said on Tuesday.
More than 100,000 people have been forced from their homes in recent days in northern Uttar Pradesh and neighboring Bihar states as rainswollen rivers burst their banks.
At least 300 people have died in eastern and central India and more than 6 million others have been affected by floods that have submerged villages, washed away crops, destroyed roads and disrupted power and phone lines, officials said on Tuesday.
Heavy monsoon rains have caused rivers, including the mighty Ganges and its tributaries, to burst their banks forcing people into relief camps in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.
Government officials in Bihar, which has seen some of the worst flooding this year with almost 120 dead and more than five million affected, said the situation was serious.
“The floodwaters have engulfed low-lying areas, homes and fields of crops,” said Zafar Rakib, a district magistrate of Katihar, one of 24 districts out of Bihar’s 38 which have been hit by the deluge.
“We have shifted people to higher ground and they are being provided with cooked rice, clean drinking water, polyethylene sheets ,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Floods have inundated the ghats or platforms on the edge of the Ganges in Varanasi, forcing families to cremate loved ones on the terrace roofs of nearby houses, Uttar Pradesh government spokesman Shailendra Pandey said.
“As the ghats are not available for cremation, the roofs of
havelis (old mansions) and other old houses along the ghats are being used for cremation, but with great difficulty,” Pandey said.
Varanasi is India’s most sacred Hindu city where thousands flock to cremate relatives in the hope of attaining nirvana, before scattering the ashes in the Ganges.
Cremations have been affected in the Hindu holy city of Allahabad, also in Uttar Pradesh, where pyres were being lit in nearby congested alleys, an official there said.
In flooded Banda district, a woman gave birth on a boat on Monday while on her way to a medical center, sparking criticism that local authorities provided little assistance.
A senior official said severe water logging meant it was extremely difficult to send medical help in time, leading the baby to be born in an inflatable dinghy amid the floodwaters.
“The child is fit and fine. We are extending all possible help to the family. Even if we had sent an ambulance there was no way it could have reached that place,” said police superintendent R. K. Pandey.
At least nine people have died in Uttar Pradesh state and another 15 in eastern Bihar over the past two days as floods hit rural areas as well as some cities, disaster management officials said.
A total of 130,000 people were sheltering in relief camps across the two states, officials said, and additional emergency workers have been deployed to help with rescue and relief efforts.