World's Most Dangerous Roads - India

Benares, in the North-East of India, the most important Holy city of the country ... Planted on the bank of the Gange, sacred river par excellence, few places in India are as variegated, chaotic and impregnated with spirituality as Benares ... Hindus cremate their dead, but to be sure that they reach paradise directly avoiding the cycle of reincarnations, it must be accomplished in Benares ... Every day, strange funeral processions converge towards the city, some come from very far away ... Then, in the tumult of crowds and traffic, the corpse is carried on a man's back in the streets, for several kilometers to the bank of the Ganges ... From the four corners of the country, every week, thousands of tons of wood arrive in Benares ... The cremations are the main reason ... It happens that one burns up to 300 bodies per day, such a flow imposes a stock of mind-boggling logs ... The "road of wood" is a huge business shared by a few local families ... India is also the world's largest producer of coal and all around Benares, open-pit mines abound ... Once extracted, the precious mineral joined by road the giant deposits of the city ... Throughout the year, thousands of pilgrims travel to Benares to immerse themselves in the Ganges ... One bathes one's sins, one implores the divinities ... By train, bus, tractor and even on foot, all means of transport are good to arrive safely ...