Ghats at Delhi’s Nigam Bodh flooded, facility shut

Operations at Delhi's largest cremation facility, Nigambodh Ghat, have been suspended as the water level of the Yamuna River broke a 45-year record and flooded the facility. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has directed people to use alternative cremation grounds. Delhi records around 470 deaths daily, with over 171,000 deaths registered in 2021.

Operations at Nigambodh Ghat, the biggest cremation facility in Delhi, were suspended on Wednesday evening after the water level of the Yamuna breached the 207.5m mark, breaking a 45-year record.

A flooded Nigambodh Ghat Delhi on Tuesday. (PTI)

Nigambodh Ghat hosts 120 funeral platforms for conventional wood use and six CNG-based furnaces. It is located along the banks of the Yamuna, and a section of the pyre platforms located along the riverfront gets flooded every year during monsoons as the river swells.

However, this year, the unprecedented rise in water levels led to the entire facility being shut.

A senior official from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) public health department said that a large part of the cremation ground was submerged, and considering the risk to people visiting the ground, a direction was issued to the management of the facility to shut operations. “Nigambodh Ghat receives dead bodies from across Delhi. Residents should avoid the facility and instead use the funeral centres in Punjabi Bagh, Panchkuian Road, Sant Nagar, and Ghazipur,” the official said.

Suman Gupta, general secretary of the managing committee of NGO Badi Panchayat, which manages the facility, said that the gates of the cremation facility were shut on directions of the MCD. “We are not accepting any new bodies, and people are being advised to use other cremation grounds such as Punjabi Bagh. A board marking the closure is also being put at the main gate,” he said.

Delhi records around 470 deaths daily, with 171,476 deaths being registered in 2021.