Burning corpses at Chandi Ghat in Haridwar. Dead bodies are cremated by Hindus, in the open and next to the Ganga or Ganges river, at this cremation ground in one of the holiest of holy Hindu cities of north India. The ashes are then consigned next door, into the river, and have no further journey time, unlike ashes from other cremations that take place across India, which needs to be carried to the Ganges river (ideally).

Cremation ground workers tend to the fires that are burning simultaneously on various different pyres in this open-air cremation ground. This was filmed in the peak of the summer of 2011 - imagine standing next to a cremation fire, with its leaping flames, when the outside temperature is 47 degrees Celcius, even without the fire, and that too as it is measured in the shade!

This footage is part of the professionally-shot stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and Digital Betacam. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... wfi @ vsnl.com and [email protected].