Stench of death pervades rural India as Ganges swells with Covid victims

Stigma and cost of wood leave families with no choice but to immerse their dead in river

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There was a time before when the Ganges was swollen with dead bodies".

In 1918, when the great flu pandemic swept through India and killed an estimated 18 million people, the water of this river - upon which so many lives depended - was filled with the stench of death.