AHMEDABAD: Not just the people, chimneys of crematoriums burning 24x7 during
Covid surge are feeling the heat too. On Monday, the chimney on an electric furnace at Vadaj
crematorium, which is handling the deluge of dead bodies, gave away with a few cracks due to excessive heat generated by day and night operations. They brought the chimney down for repairs as the furnace was halted for a few hours.
“Against four to five bodies cremated on the pyres and at the furnace, the crematorium is handling 20-odd bodies daily for the past few days. Due to near-continuous operation, the inside of the mixed-metal chimney had started developing cracks and disfiguring due to melting. Thus, it was brought down for repairs,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
The pandemic has resulted in the high death toll in the city and crematoriums are busier than 2020. Vadaj is not the only crematorium to replace the chimney – even at Chamunda crematorium near Naroda, the authorities brought down a chimney for maintenance due to similar reasons. In fact, the crematorium is creating two more slots on war footing to ensure that they can address the increased flow of over 20 bodies a day.
In Surat too, the metal structures of furnaces at crematoriums have started melting because of its constant use amid the Covid-19 spike and at least 170 deaths. Similar is the case of city’s burial sites where for the first time, earth moving machines are being used to dig up graves to accommodate more dead bodies against the norm burying one body at one spot.
“At Mora Bhagal burial place, a large grave was dug up using an earth moving machine to accommodate 22 Covid-19 deaths of Muslims on Tuesday. There are 14 burial places in the city and Mora Bhagal the biggest one. As per our estimate, on an average, total 40 dead bodies (Covid-19 dead bodies) are buried daily in various burial places,” said a source closely associated with burials told TOI.