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While filming a wildlife documentary in India's western ghats, Robin Darius Conz saw a tiger on a hillside overlooking a town.

Beyond its ghats and its timeless churn of bathing pilgrims, holy men and beggars stands a gleaming promenade, renovated by Adityanath in 2019.

As I approached the center of the complex, the crowds pressed closer together, filling every inch of the paths and ghats, a term for stairways in the Indian subcontinent, lining the sacred Bagmati River.

I’ve been there myself, and while I remember the spiritual light on the steps of the riverfront ghats, my American tourist recollections are mainly of sensory overload and crowds.

Now the ghats are nearly empty, but the public crematoriums are busy around-the-clock.