India’s crematoriums buckle as COVID-19 dead pile up

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NEW DELHI — A summer storm is buffeting New Delhi as Mohammed Shamim wearily pauses to glance at yet another ambulance arriving with a coronavirus victim to bury, just minutes after the last.

The gravedigger’s grim workload, like those of others around India, has grown dramatically in the past few weeks in a brutal second wave that has caught authorities badly off guard.

When AFP visited the Jadid Qabristan Ahle cemetery in the Indian capital — which is now in a week-long lockdown — on Friday, 11 bodies arrived within three hours.

By sunset, 20 bodies were in the ground. This compares to some days in December and January, when his earthmoving machine stayed idle and when…

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