The Bihar government, on Tuesday, 11 May, said that a total of 71 bodies had been fished out from the Ganges in Buxar district, where these were found floating in the river, triggering suspicion that the abandoned corpses could be those of COVID-19 patients. 

In the backdrop of this, a picture of stray dogs and crows gathered around dead human bodies floating in the river is getting viral on social media claiming that they are recent images from Bihar's Buxar district. 

The image was shared by Aam Aadmi Party MP Sushil Kumar Gupta on his Facebook account with the caption, "Around 500 bodies have been seen floating in the Ganges river in the Buxar and Birpur areas of Bihar, many bodies were wrapped in COVID-19 kits. These bodies, which have accumulated in an area of close to 30 km, are a living example of the insensitivity of both the UP and Bihar governments, and it is a big blot on the system." (Translated from Hindi).

Another image of vultures and crows flying around dead bodies is also being shared with a similar claim. The tweet reads, "The bodies of people from Uttar Pradesh have flown in the river Ganga and reached Buxar district in Bihar." (Translated from Hindi).

Fact Check

In our investigation, we found that the viral images are old. Both the image are from 2015 from the Ganga River In Uttar Pradesh.

Image:- 1

After doing a reverse image search on Google found that the image was uploaded on Getty Images. The image was taken on January 13, 2015, in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, at the Pariyar ghat. The image was titled, ‘100 Bodies Recovered From Ganga River In Uttar Pradesh.

The caption of the image read, "Scavenger dogs and crow gather around dead human bodies that are floating in Ganga river near Pariyar on January 13, 2015, in Unnao, India. In a curious case, over 100 bodies have been fished out from river Ganga in this area of Uttar Pradesh over the past two days, prompting the Centre to rush a team of officials to enquire the reason behind it. While about 30 bodies were recovered yesterday, 70 more were fished out today". 

Image:- 2

The second image was also found on Getty Images uploaded on January 14, 2015, from the same incident. 

The caption read: "Vultures and crows fly over the Pariyar ghat where around 80 bodies were found floating in the northern town of Unnao on January 14, 2015. Around 80 bodies have been found floating in a stream of India's Ganges, sparking renewed concerns about the health of the sacred river where millions of Hindus cremate their dead, an official said."

We also found a news report of NDTV published on January 14, 2015, stated that More than 100 decaying dead bodies surfaced in the river Ganga near Pariyar between Kanpur and Unnao. The administrations have ordered an investigation into the matter and are making arrangements for the last rites.

You can also see the video report on the incident by NDTV here. 

In conclusion, the viral images of scavenger dogs and crows gathering around the bodies in the river are from 2015 in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao passed off as recent images from Bihar's Buxar district.