Ganges bodies prompt investigation in India

Authorities are investigating how more than 100 bodies, many of them children, ended up floating in an offshoot of the Ganges river in northern India.

Officials do not suspect any criminal activity, but believe the dead were given water burials. It is Indian custom not to cremate unwed girls, and many poor in India cannot afford cremation.

The 102 bodies found floating near the village of Pariyar in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh were too badly decomposed for autopsies or identification, district magistrate Saumya Agarwal said. DNA testing is being done to determine where the bodies might have come from.

“Once we complete all the legal formalities, these bodies will be buried to avoid spread of diseases,” sub-divisional magistrate Saryua Shukla said.

Officials were investigating how so many bodies could be discovered at the same time. While it is illegal to dispose of the dead in rivers, some practising Hindus believe that giving an unwed girl a water burial will ensure she is born again into the family.

Poverty also drives people to conduct water burials to avoid the cost of cremation, which is far above the monthly wage of many in India.

Villagers first noticed the bodies yesterday, when many had become stuck on a river bank, with dogs and vultures circling the area. The narrow river breaks off from the Ganges just before passing Pariyar, about 17 miles from the state capital of Lucknow.

“It seems these [bodies] were in water for very long,” a local policeman said.

PA