patna even as the disposal of dead bodies of suspected covid victims in the ganga has rung an alarm bell among the public health experts and environmentalists do not foresee any remarkable impact on human health they observe that the covid19 virus does not remain in the blood of the infected patients and hence it would hardly infect animals and birds feeding on the dead bodiesnoted environmentalist and an expert on ganga ravindra kumar sinha told toi on tuesday that the disposal of dead bodies into the river would adversely affect the health of the river ecology by increasing the bacterial load even otherwise cremation of dead bodies including those of covid victims at various ganga ghats has increased lately adding to the bacterial loadthe river is already polluted and the recent addition of bacterial load will only add to its pollution level he saidsinha however asserted that it would not create an adverse impact on the health of the people who have not come in physical contact with the dead bodies even animals and birds feeding on dead bodies are unlikely to be infected with covid he addedthe patna medical college hospital former superintendent dr rajiv ranjan prasad said the disposal of dead bodies of suspected covid patients in the river is certainly a public health hazard dead bodies are highly contagious and are likely to adversely affect the health of the people directly using river water but animals and birds feeding on those dead bodies will not be infected with the virus as so far only man to man transfer of the virus has been reported covid virus cant even be transferred through water bodies he saidzoological survey of indias regional incharge and senior scientist gopal sharma admitted that the entire ecosystem would be disturbed he also apprehended that aquatic animals feeding on these bodies may also be infected with the virus even though not much research has been done so far on this issuepaediatrician and general physician arun shah said water is not the route of transmission of covid virus besides there is no concrete evidence of transmission of the covid virus from man to animal or viceversa only droplets and aerosols have so far been found to carry the viral load and infecting people however polluted water may cause bacterial infection and affect human health dr shah added