Thursday, November 29, 2007

India's human skeleton black market




Investigative journalist Scott Carney has been working for the last half a year or so on a story about grave robbers in Calcutta who steal skeletons and sell them to medical supply companies in the US and Europe.



"To research the story I combed the state of West Bengal and saw huge piles of police-confiscated bones," he explains. "I even spoke to some of the people who deflesh human bodies for a living."



The story is now out in Wired, and NPR News still more on Scott's blog.



Images here (shot by Scott): (left): A police officer in Burdwan, West Bengal, displays a cache of skulls confiscated from a bone factory run by Mukti Biswas on the outskirts of Kolkata. (right top): A bag of femurs recovered by West Bengal police. (right bottom): The gated entrance to Young Brothers in Kolkata. The company sells human remains at wholesale prices.


  • Previously: Boing Boing tv feature -- "Gangs of India."









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