India's floating corpses and a memory

India's massive Covid-19 surge has stunned the entire world. The bodies of dozens of coronavirus victims have recently washed up on the banks of the Ganges river in northern India. The discovery, near the border between the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, was confirmed by Indian local media.

Learning this, my memory flashed back in late November, 1970 when a massive cyclone devastated the southern part of the then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. Incidentally, I happened to be one of the first few persons who visited the cyclone-hit places as a relief officer in Patuakhai andGalachipa from IWTA and stayed there for four months. I was a fish-lover. However in those days, I could not eat fishes as they were inedible because of consuming dead human bodies.

What is worrying to me now is that fish in our water might be contaminated if such corpses flow down the rivers of Bangladesh from our neighbouring country.So we should remain alert to prevent such possibilities.

M Fasihur Rahman,

Secretary (retd), BIWTA,

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