More than 100 bodies found floating in India's Ganges river
Date January 15, 2015 - 3:27AM
Vultures and crows fly over where around 80 bodies were found floating in the northern town of Unnao. Photo: AFP
New Delhi: More than 100 decaying bodies have been found in a tributary of the Ganges river in northern India, officials say.
Authorities said they believed that the deceased were given water burials, although a police investigation has been ordered.
Water burials are sometimes used when families cannot afford a cremation.
Thirty bodies were recovered from the river in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh state on Tuesday.
By Wednesday, a total of 104 bodies had been found.
Senior district official Saryu Prasad said efforts were under way to DNA test the bodies and identify them.
"The waters in the river have receded, because of which the bodies may have surfaced," Prasad said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party has vowed to clean up the notoriously polluted river, India's most sacred waterway.
Green campaigners have been demanding an end to water burials in the Ganges.
Volunteers of the Ganga Bachao Andolan (Save Ganges Movement) on Wednesday began a sit-in protest against the dumping of the dead in the river, the IANS news agency reported.
DPA
