Crematoriums in a number of parts of India have been operating non-stop since this deadly second wave picked up pace. Workers say they haven't had a break from performing last rites.

But the official death tolls being released do not appear to reflect this.

There is mounting evidence that India has been under-reporting the number of deaths from Covid-19, as it grapples with a second wave.

An investigation by television station NDTV found at least 1,150 extra deaths which were not included in Delhi's official Covid count last week. Other local reports have found similar examples of undercounting replicated around the country.

In Uttar Pradesh, a state of 204 million people, health officials said 68 people had died in the entire state. But a Hindi newspaper ran a headline quoting officials in the capital, Lucknow, as saying they had recorded 98 Covid funerals in the city alone.

Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan, told the Reuters news agency that many parts of India were in "data denial".

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