Rush forces Ghazipur crematorium staff to hold mass funeral in parking lot

The designated funeral platforms are about 400 metres from the parking space and can dispose of only 36 bodies at a time, facility staff said.

Until three days ago, the vacant plot adjacent the Ghazipur crematorium in east Delhi was where visitors used to park their vehicles. On Thursday night, when Hindustan Times visited the spot, it no longer housed vehicles, but funeral pyres -- about 40 of them -- most of which continued to burn till late night.

With the ceaseless arrival of dead bodies on Thursday, crematorium staff said they had to burn bodies round-the-clock at every available space. (AP Photo)

With Covid-19 bodies arriving at the crematorium without a break — at least 85 Covid-19 bodies were brought there on Thursday, said officials — the crematorium staff said they started setting up pyres on the parking lot next to the road, with no more than a three-foot gap between bodies.

The designated funeral platforms are about 400 metres from the parking space and can dispose of only 36 bodies at a time, facility staff said. With the ceaseless arrival of dead bodies on Thursday, crematorium staff said they had to burn bodies round-the-clock at every available space.

Civic body officials said that 100 at least bodies were brought to the crematorium on Friday. “We stopped counting after that,” said an official.

Before the outbreak of the pandemic in March last year, the crematorium would handle a maximum of 25 bodies a day, and around 10-15 on average.

“We cannot follow protocol anymore because of the rush. We are left with no option but to burn Covid and non- Covid bodies in the same space. Had we not used this space, people would have to wait for days to complete the last rites of their loved ones. Two days ago, several grieving families had to be told to take bodies back as the pyre platforms were full and people were already in queue. That is when we decided to use the parking space,” said one of the officials at the crematorium, who identified himself by his first name Manoj.

Around 11.50pm on Thursday, there were at least 40 bodies burning side by side on the parking lot. There were at least five more families waiting outside the crematorium with bodies of loved ones, the staff member said.

Another official at the crematorium said on condition of anonymity, “ We hardly got 15 bodies a day in January and February and now the number has suddenly risen to 80 a day. The mortuaries are not storing the bodies of Covid-19 patients and families cannot take them home. Although the Hindu faith does not advise burning bodies after sunset, the situation is different now. We work even past midnight these days. People do not mind even if the bodies are burnt on the ground instead of the raised platforms.”

The analysis of the Covid-19 fatality data in Delhi, as recorded in the state government’s daily health bulletin, shows a steady increase in death count from April 1. As per the state bulletin, in January, 10 persons, on average, died of Covid-19 daily while in February, the number dropped to two a day, before increasing to four in March.

It was in April, when the fourth wave of the infection swept through Delhi, that the numbers shot up exponentially. At least 98 persons, on average, started dying of Covid every day (April 1 to April 22 ). Delhi has reported 1,838 Covid-19 deaths in the past 10 days alone.

As deaths started increasing, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), which runs the Ghazipur crematorium, on April 16 ordered that the facility remain open 24x7. But even that did not suffice in the days that followed. Two CNG furnaces, which were announced by the east civic body to cater to Covid-19 deaths and minimise the rush, are yet to open.

East Delhi mayor Nirmal Jain confirmed they had set up pyres at the parking lot.

“We also created 10 pyre platforms to meet the demand, over and above the 36 platforms that were in place already. The CNG furnace will be operational by the first week of May.”

At midnight, while the bodies burned at the parking site, another group of labourers were at work to start the two electric crematoriums. “ It will take us another 10 days to complete the work. Looking at the present situation, even if the government installs 10 CNG furnaces, they may not be enough,” one of the workers said.