Covid-19: After grievous loss, no closure for kin

NEW DELHI: Grieving relatives of Covid-19 victims in the city now have an additional wait — due to the widespread corona infection and the lockdown, they can’t even carry out the rituals of immersing the ashes immediately. With the asthi grah or the lockers keeping ashes having no more space, funeral managers at the Covid crematoria are advising families to keep the ashes at local temples/gurdwaras.
“The managing committee had ordered new trays to keep more ash urns but the number of daily cremations is so high that they too got filled.Instead of ritualistically immersing the ashes in the Ganga, some families are now choosing upstream Yamuna locations where water is still clear,” an official overseeing the cremation rituals at the Nigambodh Ghat facility said. Due to high pollution, the Yamuna in the city is no longer preferred for immersion, he added.
Before the pandemic hit, the Nigambodh Ghat crematorium had 228 lockers where the families could keep the urns before taking them in a day or two, mostly to Haridwar or Kashi. “All of these lockers are now occupied. We are telling relatives to keep the urns in their cars or local temples. We have ordered 70 more trays,” an official said. The time allowed for ashes to stay on funeral platforms has been reduced and the families are asked to collect it on the same day.
The biggest cremation ground in the capital has 120 traditional funeral pyre platforms and six CNG furnaces. “In the recent memory, the need to expand the platforms or the asthi grah has never arisen but this calamity has pushed us to the extreme point,” a funeral priest said. To expand the capacity, 20 funeral platforms have recently been added along the Yamuna and the six CNG furnaces have been asked to operate even at night. On Sunday till 6pm, the Covid-protocol funeral crossed 114 while non-Covid cremations also continue.
The second biggest crematorium in Delhi, Punjabi Bagh, has two lockers where 120 and 100 ash urns can be kept — both are now overflowing. “The managing committee has put up a notice asking people to make arrangements for these urns,” an official said. A manager said families had been advised to immerse the ashes at Majnu Ka Tilla gurdwara and Gang Nahar early in the morning. Those who want to go still farther have been suggested Gadhganga.
Similar reports have been received from the Lodhi Road and Seemapuri cremation grounds, both of which are running beyond their capacity.