Nagpur: The staff at the city’s crematoria has been far busier over the past few weeks than any time earlier. Last rites at Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s 16 crematoria (with 150 platforms, 3 LPG and 2 diesel cremation machines) have seen a huge rise in numbers – from 60-70 a day to over 200 now.
Data procured from NMC’s solid waste management department showed that the first three months of 2021 saw 7,468 last rites being performed.
The rise in cremations has also led to a near seven-fold rise in the consumption of firewood. For performing last rites, 300kg firewood is required and 10kg cow dung cakes. In non-Covid times, the NMC used to provide approximately 21,000 kg firewood per day for performing last rites. Now, it is using up almost 1.40 lakh kg firewood a day, said a senior official who is looking after firewood stock in the city’s crematoria.
The official claimed that the stock of firewood is sufficient and there is no scarcity even though the city has witnessed increase in deaths due to Covid. He said cremating bodies on firewood or cow dung cakes takes almost a day, while LPG and diesel crematoriums can cremate at least 10 bodies daily.
To overcome the current scenario, NMC is all set to set up a diesel crematorium at Manewada ghat, the officer said. At present, NMC runs LPG crematoria at Ambazari, Mokshadham and Sahakar Nagar ghats, while Gangabai and Vaishali Nagar ghats have diesel crematoria.
Though the civic body lacks platforms at crematoria, at this point of time NMC has no plans to acquire or start any new cremation grounds in the city limits.
The civic body is utilizing 15 vehicles to ferry bodies from hospitals to cremation grounds – which too are falling short, said an officer requesting anonymity. He said it takes almost two hours for a vehicle to shift bodies from hospitals to cremation grounds. So the waiting period in hospitals to shift bodies too has increased, the officer claimed.