This story is from July 8, 2020

Hyderabad: Video shows dog gnawing at body of Covid-19 victim

In a footage that went viral on social media, dogs at a busy city crematorium can be seen roaming around funeral pyres while one dog was seen gnawing at the half-burnt body of a Covid-19 victim. The video evoke widespread outrage among netizens who flooded civic authorities with questions over the situation at crematoriums.
Hyderabad: Video shows dog gnawing at body of Covid-19 victim
Screengrab of the dog seen near the corpse at the crematorium
HYDERABAD: In a footage that went viral on social media, dogs at a busy city crematorium can be seen roaming around funeral pyres while one dog was seen gnawing at the half-burnt body of a Covid-19 victim. The video evoke widespread outrage among netizens who flooded civic authorities with questions over the situation at crematoriums.
In response, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) said that heavy rain had doused the flames while the stray dogs had sneaked inside through a broken wall.
Authorities said they heard about the incident on July 5 and had immediately swung into action.
“The body at the Sanathnagar crematorium was cremated as per the Covid-19 protocols. Due to the rain, the flames doused,” said a senior official of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. The officials said that a portion of a wall had also collapsed, allowing easy entry of stray dogs into the area. “After that incident, sheds were constructed over the pyres and the broken wall was also reconstructed. In addition to that, an electric crematorium is also being repaired,” the officer said.
With the video being widely shared on social media showing dogs roaming around the pyres, authorities put together a team to monitor the area when bodies of victims are brought for cremation. “A team has been constituted in three shifts for monitoring Covid-19 dead body disposal in the crematorium. But many non-Covid-19 bodies by private hospitals and individuals are also burnt at the crematorium,” the GHMC said in its statement.
Civic body authorities have started renovation works in fourteen crematoriums and graveyards across the city. The GHMC plans to revamp these areas with amenities like ghats, restrooms, changing rooms, drinking water facilities along with fortifications to the compound walls and increasing greenery.
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