‘Hundreds of bodies’ buried on riverbanks

POLICE are reaching out to villagers in northern India to investigate the recovery of bodies buried in shallow sand graves or washed up on the banks of the Ganges, prompting speculation on social media that they are the remains of Covid-19 victims.

Officers in jeeps and boats, and using loudspeakers, asked people not to dispose of bodies in rivers.

“We are here to help you perform the last rites,” police said.

Rains exposed the cloth coverings of bodies buried in shallow sand graves on a wide, flat riverbank in Prayagraj, a city in Uttar Pradesh state.

A state government spokesman denied reports that more than 1,000 corpses of Covid-19 victims had been recovered from rivers in the past two weeks.