LUCKNOW: With the mighty Ganga having inundated the ghats of Varanasi, people are finding it a challenge to cremate their dead.
As a result, pyres are being lit at any available spot in the narrow bylanes or backyards of houses with a few pieces of dry wood.
“Though the space in the bylanes is not enough to accommodate pyres and the relatives of the dead for the last rites, there is no other option left with the Ganga rising on an hourly basis,” said a local.
A pundit facilitating the last rites confirmed that people with dead bodies were waiting for their turn to perform the last rites for hours as the queues were long.
Adding to their woes, traders have jacked up the prices of logs and other material used for performing the last rites due to flood.
Meanwhile, several villages along the Ganga and Yamuna are flooded and many parts of Bijnor, Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Shamli and Meerut districts are facing a flood-like situation after the irrigation department in Haridwar in neighbouring Uttarakhand released around three lakh cusecs of water from Bhimgoda Barrage.
This year, 70,000 to 80,000 more cusecs of water have been released compared to last year. Crops across several bighas in over two dozen villages in western UP have been destroyed.