The bodies of suspected COVID-19 victims are turning up in Indian rivers

The banks of the Ganges River.
(Image credit: Archana Thiyagarajan/AFP via Getty Images)

The bodies of suspected COVID-19 victims continue to wash up in rivers across India, and many believe the corpses are being dumped due to overrun crematoriums and scarce and expensive firewood.

In the state of Bihar, 70 bodies were found floating in the Ganges River, with dozens more discovered upstream in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh; a net has since been placed in the river near the border to keep bodies from going downstream, The Guardian reports. In Madhya Pradesh state, bodies have been found in the Runj River, a source of water for villagers and livestock. Officials will take DNA samples from all of the bodies before burying them in a mass grave.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.