India's Holiest River, the Ganges, has been swollen with bodies in recent days as the country reports record 4,529 daily Covid-19 deaths.

According to data more than 267,000 new cases were added, taking the number of known infections to 25.5 million, second only to the United States.

The jump in deaths has led to backlogs at crematoriums in many places and multiplied the cost of the last rites.

Hundreds of corpses have been found floating in the River Ganges or buried in the sand of banks. Those who live close to where they have washed up, in the Northern State of Uttar Pradesh, fear they are Covid-19 victims.

India has been overwhelmed by a devastating second wave of the Pandemic in recent weeks. It has recorded more than 25 million cases and 275,000 deaths, but experts say the real death toll is several times higher.

The bodies on the River banks, taken together with funeral pyres burning round-the-clock and cremation grounds running out of space, tell the story of a death toll unseen and unacknowledged in official data.