A wood bank in India is helping families of Covid-19 victims perform last rites with dignity

The apocalyptic scenes of hundreds of corpses floating in India’s Ganga river in May created global headlines. While the world was shocked, officials from Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, insisted that funeral rites on the river have been prevalent for several years.

But the bodies kept coming, as families of Covid-19 victims—without enough money to perform the last rites—kept abandoning corpses of loved ones at the river’s bank, instead of cremating them. Despite apparent state government indifference, a solution was needed.

Funerals need wood

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