India’s holy Ganges river gives up its coronavirus dead

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ALLAHABAD, India — Partly hidden between long reeds of grass, bodies shrouded in saffron cloth float silently down the holy Ganges river, a reminder of how India’s ferocious coronavirus wave overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums.

Families in India’s north and east gave up the bodies of their loved ones to the river or buried them in shallow graves on its banks, unable to afford the cost of funeral pyres at the height of the outbreak in April and May.

But the start of seasonal monsoon flooding has caused strong currents to surge through the 2,500-kilometer (1,550-mile) long waterway, dislodging some of the bodies buried on its banks.

Officials in Allahabad — one …

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