KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said several bodies have floated to the state downstream river Ganga from Uttar Pradesh and polluted the waters.
She also pointed out that the decomposed bodies were spotted in the river in Malda district, and the state government has "performed the last rites of some of them".
"Several bodies have floated downstream to West Bengal from Uttar Pradesh. In Malda, we have spotted quite a few bodies. We performed the last rites of some of them with due respect," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat.
River Ganga flows through the states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal before finally meeting the Bay of Bengal.
A number bloated corpses were found floating in the river in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar amid the raging second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, sparking panic among locals who depend on the Ganga for agricultural purposes and other basic needs.