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Space crunch forces pet cemetery to refuse burials
Rising realty costs have its toll on pets too. Officials at the pet cemetery ‘Garden of Eternal Peace’ in Rajaukari (that has run out of space for burial of pets) are now planning to set up electric or NCG fuel-run crematorium for dead pets.
Rising realty costs have its toll on pets too. Officials at the pet cemetery ‘Garden of Eternal Peace’ in Rajaukari (that has run out of space for burial of pets) are now planning to set up electric or NCG fuel-run crematorium for dead pets.
Operational since 1998, the cemetery has more than 700 pets buried on a small piece of land in the backyard of a veterinary hospital.
"We have been adding layer after layer of earth to create space for burying pets in the limited space in our compound,” said officer-in-charge Dr. Vinod Sharma.
“We have partially started refusing pet owners space for burial as we are not left with any. Therefore, we have plans of buying power or CNG fuel-run cremation machine, for which some pet lovers have also agreed,” he added.
While talking about the idea of starting a pet cemetery, Dr. Sharma said, "The requirement for such a service emanated from the emotional needs of people who treat their pets like their family members and are deeply hurt when these pets die. They not only want memories of the pets, who spent years with them, to remain with them, but also want to accord honour and a dignified burial by performing their last rituals.”
Some of the buried pets here include Timoshka, who died of a heart attack and was buried with rituals at the Garden of Eternal Peace. Timoshka was a Russian cat owned by a diplomat.
Other graves here are those of Ricky, Rojer, Soupy, Chiku, Max and many more pets, owners of which buried after death. “Those who have space in their gardens or farmhouses, bury them there. However, people living in hi-rises come to the cemetery. People availing the service are mostly from Gurgaon, Delhi, Faridabad and Noida," Dr. Sharma said.
