- Heavy rain in western Uttar Pradesh caused schools to close and families to stay indoors
- Floodwater and soil erosion exposed bodies at a graveyard in Sayyad Majra village
- Villagers and social workers moved and reburied bodies after the rain subsided
Days of heavy rain have disrupted life across western Uttar Pradesh, with schools and colleges shut and families told to stay indoors. In Sayyad Majra village, on the Dehradun-Delhi Highway in Saharanpur's Gagalheri area, the rain led to a distressing scene at the local graveyard, where floodwater and soil erosion pushed several bodies out of their graves.
Rain over three days caused the ground at the cemetery to cave in at several spots. As water flowed through the graveyard, it damaged a number of graves and uncovered bodies buried beneath, including their burial shrouds.
As word spread and people gathered, villagers moved the exposed bodies to safer, dry ground with care. Two social workers, identified as Ashu and Pasha, joined the effort and helped organise the response. Once the rain eased and the water was drained, the bodies were reburied following religious customs.
The incident has also drawn attention to gaps in local infrastructure. Residents said the drains along the highway near the cemetery are not good enough, and that this made the flooding worse. They said nothing had been done to protect the graveyard before the monsoon, and that this could have prevented the damage.
Locals have asked the district administration to build a proper boundary wall around the cemetery, fix the drainage in the area, and take steps to stop soil erosion, so that such incidents do not happen again.
The graveyard incident came on a day of wider disruption caused by the season's first spell of heavy monsoon rain in western Uttar Pradesh. Traffic came to a standstill on key roads in Ghaziabad and Noida, both part of the National Capital Region, as roads caved in and trees fell. In Ghaziabad alone, six people died during the downpour.
(With inputs from Ashok Kumar)
