Shallow graves exposed on the banks of Ganges in India amid COVID-19 battle
As India struggles to battle with a second wave of COVID-19, new images show bodies exposed in shallow graves on the banks of the river Ganges. WARNING: GRAPHIC
Coronavirus
Don't miss out on the headlines from Coronavirus. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Shallow sand graves along the banks of the Ganges river have been exposed as India battles a second wave of COVID-19.
Shocking images show bodies, including of suspected COVID-19 victims, partially exposed after rains washed away the top layer of sand at a cremation ground in Shringverpur, northwest of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Grave diggers at the site said that there was a threefold increase in the number of bodies arriving for burials and cremations since April.
Teams of police and local officials have been patrolling several areas along the river in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to discourage burials on its banks, and to warn people of possible infection risks, local media reported.
India’s prolonged and debilitating wave of COVID-19 infections has reached deep into rural India, where the true extent of devastation may never be known because of a lack of widespread testing or reliable data.
Corpses that have washed up on the banks of the river suggest the situation is equally dire elsewhere in the country.
Kidwai Ahmad, from Sadullahpur village in Uttar Pradesh, said the situation is “disastrous” with people dying all around his neighbourhood.
“There is so much poverty all around that people can’t even afford decent cremations. They often tie big stones to the bodies and throw them in the river,” he told AFP by phone.
“Others don’t even bother with that and just throw the bodies in as they are. It has become common practice here,” he added.
“Some are just burying their dead in shallow graves and not even waiting to see if crows or dogs feed on them.”
In the past month no medical team has visited the village, he said.
The sick are staying at home taking “herbal concoctions”, Ahmad said.
Clinics, if people can travel to them, are low on beds, medicines and oxygen.
“People have been left to die,” he added.
“This is the India which is hidden from everyone.”
AUSSIE’S EMOTIONAL PLEA AFTER BROTHER'S DEATH
A western Sydney man whose brother became the third Australian to die of COVID-19 in India has made an impassioned plea for the federal government help to bring his elderly father to Australia.
Sunil Khanna, 51, an Australian citizen from Harris Park in Sydney’s west, died in hospital in New Delhi late in April, a few days after testing positive for the virus.
Mr Khanna’s mother, an Indian national, also died from COVID-19 in New Delhi.
Before he died, Mr Khanna had been living in India looking after his elderly parents and was attempting to fly home shortly after the sub-continent was crippled by the world’s worst outbreak.
But flights from India were suspended temporarily. The first Qantas repatriation flight after the ban touched down in Darwin on Saturday with just 80 Australians on board.
Now the family’s 83-year-old father, who also tested positive but recovered, remains in New Delhi alone.
That prompted their Australian son, Sanjay Khanna, to make an emotional plea from Sydney for government assistance to bring his father to Australia while speaking on the Today show.
“Within four days, my whole life has been turned up side down,” Mr Khanna said.
“First my brother, then my mother, within 24 hours (they) passed away from this infection and my dad has just now recovered.
“He is alone. He is my last surviving member in the family. I‘m just making a plea through your media to help me to get my father home before it’s too late for him. He is an 83-year-old man alone by himself. Nobody else to help him is there.”
Mr Khanna’s efforts are being aided by Sanjay Deshwal, a Sydney migration agent and president of Little India Harris Park Business Association.
Mr Deshwal said he had spoken to the federal minister for immigration, Alex Hawke, and the New South Wales minister for multiculturalism, Geoff Lee, about the case in an attempt to secure an exemption for Mr Khanna’s father to enter Australia.
“We are talking to the Department of Home Affairs minister and we are trying to find a way so the travel exemption can be granted to him because he is an Indian citizen and, at present, no Indian citizens are allowed here on any kind of visa,” Mr Deshwal said. “We are pushing the application through.”
ANOTHER AUSSIE DIES OF COVID-19 IN INDIA
A third Australian citizen has died in India of coronavirus, a few weeks after contracting the disease.
Sydney man Sunil Khanna, 51, was in New Delhi caring for his parents when all three tested positive on April 25, Nine Newspapers reports.
He reportedly died at the end of April, the same day as his mother.
It comes after the tragic social media post of Australian man Govind Kant, who died earlier from COVID-19 in India, was revealed.
Govind Kant, who lived in Sydney with his wife and two children, travelled to India following the death of his mother, who also died from COVID-19.
“I am so sorry mummy – I was not with you,” Mr Kant posted to Facebook on March 31 following her death.
Mr Kant reportedly arrived in India in early April, and as the COVID-19 crisis continued to worsen across the country made several attempts to return to Australia, but was unable to due to passenger caps.
The Australian government’s travel ban was introduced on May 3, by which time Mr Kant had contracted COVID-19.
The former solar industry worker died in a Delhi hospital on Sunday.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison called Mr Kant’s death a “terrible tragedy” but did not address questions around passenger caps or the controversial two-week travel ban.
Mr Kant’s employer, Trina Solar, paid tribute to him on social media, calling him a “pioneer” of the industry, adding, “mere words cannot express the heartfelt sorrow we all feel upon Govind’s passing … We pray his soul may rest in peace.”
INDIA LOSES 50 DOCTORS IN ONE DAY
India lost 50 doctors in one day as the nation of 1.3 billion people experienced a new wave of cases that has pushed the healthcare system to breaking point.
So far this year, 244 doctors have lost their lives to the virus – including 50 on Sunday – according to the Indian Medical Association (IMA).
India’s total coronavirus cases surged past the 25 million mark on Tuesday, pushed by 263,533 new infections and a record 4329 deaths over the last 24 hours.
The nation becomes the second after the United States to record the grim milestone in one day.
Total cases in India are now at 25.23 million, while the death toll is at 278,719, according to health ministry data.
QANTAS CHANGES INDIA COVID TEST LAB AMID CONCERNS
Qantas will use a different laboratory in India to test passengers for COVID-19 after concerns emerged over false positive results.
The airline is standing by the initial testing for the first repatriation flight after the travel ban was lifted, The Australian reports.
Around half of the 150 Australians due to fly home were not allowed to board after returning a positive result or being the close contact of an active case.
The airline said on Tuesday it had reviewed its pre-departure testing arrangements, The Australian reports.
CYCLONE CHAOS IN VIRUS-RAVAGED INDIA
More than 90 people are missing after a barge off the coast of India’s Mumbai city sank amid a severe cyclone.
Cyclone Tauktae has battered India’s western coast and wreaked havoc amid a second wave of COVID-19 that has overwhelmed Indian hospitals.
The Indian navy said it had rescued 177 of the 270 people aboard the barge, the BBC reports.
Three other commercial barges carrying about 700 people are stranded at sea.
At least six people died over the weekend in torrential rains and winds as Cyclone Tauktae, according to media reports the biggest to hit western India in 30 years, swept over the Arabian Sea with Gujarat state in its sights.
The colossal swirling system visible from space exacerbated India’s dire problems dealing with a huge coronavirus surge that is killing at least 4,000 people every day and pushing hospitals to breaking point.
In waterlogged and windswept Mumbai, where authorities on Monday closed the airport for several hours and urged people to stay indoors, authorities on Sunday shifted 580 Covid patients “to safer locations” from three field hospitals.
In Gujarat, where on Sunday and overnight more than 100,000 people from 17 districts were evacuated, all COVID-19 patients in hospitals with five kilometres of the coast were also moved.
India reported on Monday 4,100 deaths and 280,000 fresh COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total close to 25 million — a doubling since April 1.
“This cyclone is a terrible double blow for millions of people in India whose families have been struck down by record COVID infections and deaths,” said Udaya Regmi from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The organisation said it was helping authorities to evacuate people most at risk in coastal areas, providing first aid, masks “and encouraging other critical COVID-19 prevention measures”.
SYDNEY BUSINESSMAN DIES IN INDIA
A Sydney-based businessman has become the second Australian to die from COVID-19 in India.
Trina Solar Australia assistant director Govind Kant, 47, had returned to India for personal reasons in April.
In a statement, the company described the father of two as a dear friend and valued colleague.
“Unfortunately, Govind contracted the virus in India and has passed away,” the company said.
“Words may not suffice to express the heartfelt sorrow that the team at Trina Solar feels for the passing of our exceptional colleague and friend.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Govind and his family, including his wife and two daughters.”
Tributes have been pouring in following the tragic announcement.
“Such sad news. The industry will miss him greatly,” SolarEdge Technologies technical director James Sturch wrote.
“He was truly committed to making a change in the world and always had time for people, he always demonstrated respect and was always supportive.
“My thoughts are for all of his colleagues and especially his family.”
MPower Projects general manager Ryan Scott said: “Absolutely tragic news, a wonderful person taken at such a young age.”
Zero Emissions Developments project manager Chris Dryden said he had last spoken to Mr Kant a few weeks ago.
“A legend in the Australian solar industry and a good bloke to boot,” Mr Dryden said.
“I was talking with him a few weeks ago and am struggling to comprehend that he is no longer with us.
“Sending heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.”
Mr Kant’s death follows that of a 59-year-old Australian permanent resident who died in Delhi earlier this month.
The man’s daughter Sonali Ralhan wrote on Facebook that her father had been “abandoned” by the Australian government after it introduced a temporary ban on all travel from India in a bid to reduce the number of infections in quarantine.
“I am an Australian citizen and highly disappointed to be one today,” she wrote.
“What nation disowns their own citizens? (It) is a matter of wonder for the entire world.”
The travel ban ended on May 15 but the first repatriation flight carried only 80 passengers after 70 were removed following positive tests. Some of those people later tested negative.
AUSSIE TESTS POSITIVE
An Australian citizen that arrived back into the country from India has tested positive for COVID-19.
The passenger was on board the repatriated Qantas flight that landed in Darwin on Saturday.
They were then transported to quarantine in Howard Springs.
It comes after Australia’s stranded cricketers touched down in Sydney on Monday morning.
More than 30 Australian players, coaches and support staff — including Ricky Ponting, Steve Smith and Pat Cummins — arrived after travelling on private flights from the Maldives, where they went a fortnight ago after the Indian Premier League was suspended.
Mike Hussey, who was diagnosed with COVID-19, is also set to return on a commercial flight from Doha.
The controversial flight ban stopping arrivals from India was lifted from May 15.
Passengers can now return to Australia via Doha, with Qatar Airways running flights from major Indian cities to the Qatari capital.
One passenger, an Australian temporary visa holder named ‘Anjana R’, took to social media from Doha before boarding a flight to Brisbane.
She had flown from the Indian city of Chennai to Doha, she wrote, and was waiting for her flight to Australia to depart.
It comes as at least three passengers who were booted off the first rescue flight for Australians stranded in India have now reportedly tested negative for COVID-19.
The passengers initially tested positive for coronavirus, although it was understood they had no symptoms.
After seeing their own COVID tests, at least three were negative for the virus.
Questions are now being asked about the accuracy of the testing program, set up by Federal Government and Qantas
The first repatriation flight arrived in Darwin this weekend, with only 78 of the planned 150 people on-board.
Those who were refused entry to the flight had either returned positive tests or were deemed close contacts.
A Qantas spokesman said the airline had “have reiterated to our diagnostic agency that they must ensure that any laboratory they use has all current and appropriate accreditations”.
She said they were investigating if the diagnostic agency used another local laboratory for the pre-departure tests.
“We continue to work with DFAT to ensure the process is working as it should,” she said.
“The reason we went to India was to bring home as many Australians as possible. Together with DFAT all the protocols put in place were designed to minimise the risk of importing the virus and maximise the safety of everyone on board.”
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was questioned about the issue during a press conference in Melbourne on Sunday.
“There are more flights that will be coming from India – we have to follow medical advice,” Frydenberg said.
But Opposition leader Anthony Albanese blasted the Federal Government, saying it needed to do more to bring Australians stranded overseas home.
“I feel that the Australians in India are very frustrated at the moment,” Albanese said.
“They are distressed. I had a zoom call with many of our citizens, along with Penny Wong and Michelle Rowland on Friday.
“The citizens there, my heart goes out to them. And of course while they are in India, they are exposed to real health concerns because of the outbreak there.”
– with Charles Miranda, Katy Hall, Amanda Sheppeard, Nadia Salemme
Join the conversation
State’s big move on cutting-edge vaccines
One Aussie state has revealed its next move on a major vaccine development project – which promises to change the way it responds to future health challenges.
Read more
$1.1m plan to overhaul Long Covid, chronic fatigue care
Guidelines to treat the 750,000-plus Australians who have Long Covid and chronic fatigue syndrome are more than two decades old. See the plan to fix them.
Read more