Bodies washed up on Indian Riverbanks indicate a massive discrepancy in India’s Covid-19 death toll

India has been afflicted by a deadly second wave of the coronavirus in recent weeks, having recorded more than 25 million cases and a staggering 275,000 deaths, however, the sheer number of bodies found floating in the Indian rivers shows that there might be numerous unrecorded and unacknowledged deaths from the pandemic, making India’s death toll higher than the one officially recorded. What Happened: The terrible situation first came to local attention when 71 corpses washed up on the riverbank in Bihar’s Chausa village, on 10th May. Autopsies were carried out on the decaying bodies and DNA samples were taken. While officials said some of the remains could be body parts that had floated into the Ganges after routine cremations on the banks, but they suspected the corpses had been dumped in the river, and a net was installed by the police across the water to catch more. A day later, six miles (10km) from Chausa, dozens of heavily decomposed bodies were found scattered on the riverbank in Gahmar village in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur district, with animals scavenging on the remains. In the Ballia district, the police retrieved 62 corpses. In Kannauj, Kanpur, Unnao, and Prayagraj, the river bed is dotted with shallow graves. What Does This Mean: While traditionally many communities follow what is known as “Jal Pravah” – the practice of floating in the river the bodies of children, unwed girls, or those who die from infectious diseases or snake bites, what is alarming and previously unheard of is the number of bodies suddenly turning up along so many riverbanks. A journalist in Kanpur told the BBC the corpses were evidence of a “massive discrepancy between the official Covid-19 death figures and the actual numbers on the ground”. He said officially 196 people had died from the virus in Kanpur between 16 April and 5 May, but the data from seven crematoriums showed nearly 8,000 cremations. As crematoriums were only accepting bodies that were coming with coronavirus certificates, and many people were dying at home, unable to take tests or afford a cremation, families decided to choose the water of the Indian rivers as the final resting place for the departed souls. These deaths were not counted in the official Covid death statistics of India