Bodies recovered from India's Ganges river

[T_i_B]

Source: BBC

More than 100 bodies have been found in the river Ganges in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, prompting the authorities to order a probe.

Reports said the bodies were of people who were dumped in the river or buried on the banks after their families could not afford a proper cremation. Many Indians regard the Ganges as holy and use its bank for cremations.

The 2,500km (1,500-mile) river has been badly polluted by industrial waste, farm pesticides and sewage. Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to clean up the river after his election victory last year.

Bodies were first found floating near the banks of the river on Tuesday in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district. Villagers noticed the bodies when many had become stuck on the river bank with dogs and vultures circling the area. More were found on Wednesday, and authorities said so far 104 bodies had been retrieved.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-30808745?OCID=fbasia

[slumcamper]

1. This has long been a problem.

I became aware of this when I was on assignment in India in 1983. Then it was body parts; now it's whole bodies. I refuse to eat any seafood (sardines, tuna, etc., mainly from Thailand) that I know originated in the Bay of Bengal. It's just not my "thing."

[Jesus Malverde]

2. There is video on liveleak

Dogs feasting on corpses not a pretty sight.

[yurbud]

3. couldn't the government get involved in getting cremations done properly?

[former9thward]

5. Cremations cost money.

India has about a billion people. The government does not have that type of money. This is nothing new. When I was in India in 1994 I was on a boat on the Ganges and I saw two bodies floating by.

[yurbud]

9. Two words: solar oven

No wood or fuel to buy, just leave the body in until it's done.

[former9thward]

10. Three words: The Hindu religion.

Wood is integral to Hindu cremation rites, a symbolic connection between the body and the earth, which is why the first layer of wood is laid on the ground.

Devout Hindus regard cremation as an essential rite that frees the soul from the body, enabling its journey to the next level. But with India's Hindu population of about 800 million ensuring a massive number of open-air cremations, there is a growing awareness that this adherence to religious orthodoxy carries a toll for the temporal world.


It takes a lot of wood to burn a body: The demand for funeral pyres strips the country of more than 50 million trees annually, according to some estimates. Cremations also release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And the body parts sometimes dumped into rivers and streams add further toxicity to water that is already badly polluted.

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-ashes3sep03-story.html#page=1

[yurbud]

11. What if they used a token amount, the way a lot of churches do with baptism?

[yurbud]

12. this is the only thing that ever makes me consider moving to India and going into the funeral

industry.

[former9thward]

13. India is a nice country to visit but that is all.

Living there, as someone from the West, would be a nightmare. The infrastructure for transportation is chaos. The government is a bureaucratic maze.

[yurbud]

15. VIDEO of concept:

[former9thward]

16. Yes, probably would work.

I hope something changes. The article I linked to talked about a 'green' concept which would reduce the amount of wood used to 1/3 but still using wood. It says it has not really gone anywhere yet.

[JI7]

7. they go to the Ganges because of stupid religious beliefs

[candelista]

4. Nothing unusual about this.

Here: http://www.all-about-india.com/Ganges-River-Pollution.html

[JI7]

6. One good thing about the new pm is he does seem serious

About cleaning up th he country.

[Skittles]

8. disgusting

[GOLGO 13]

14. This is news...now?

They've been doing this for a long time now. I can't decide which is worse, chucking the dead in the river, the frantic shitting in the streets or the bi-weekly gang raping thats so bad that it makes the international news.



http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-30647504

[Skittles]

17. and we pimps jobs there