Dung cakes help save 30 tonnes of wood in Rajkot

Rajkot: A crematorium in Rajkot has helped save nearly 32,000 kg or roughly 32 tonnes of wood in the last five days by using cow dung cakes
As Covid-19 cases spike and the number of deaths spiral every day, the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) requested a non-government organization (NGO) to cremate bodies using dung cakes and sticks instead of wood in a bid to protect the environment.
About 400 kg wood goes into cremation of one body but use of cow dung cakes and sticks reduced the requirement to just about 70-80 kg.
“We have cremated nearly 100 bodies using dung cakes along with wood since April 21 after getting a request from RMC. Roughly, this has helped save nearly 30 tonnes of wood,” said Vijay Dobariya, head of Sadbhavna Vrudhashram, the NGO which is actively engaged in tree plantation in Rajkot city and villages too.
RMC has provided a waste land and 15 furnaces to this private trust on Vagudad Road while several gau shalas (cow sheds) are donating dung to the trust.
For now, the organization does not have time to make sticks out of the dung, so they use cakes directly. “However, we will soon procure a machine that converts cow dung cakes into sticks,” said Dobariya.
Yogesh Patel, in-charge of the crematorium said, “In the first layer, we arranged wooden sticks and thereafter we set the dry cake of cow dung. Dung has less calorific value compared to wood as a result of which it takes nearly one hour more to complete the cremation of a dead.”
RMC pays Rs 1,500 per body in addition to the yearly grants to the crematoriums looking at the unprecedented increase in number of deaths, expenses incurred on wood and maintenance of furnaces. According to sources, several crematoriums are also facing shortage of wood and they are forced to mix fresh wood in the pyres.
The five crematoriums across the city are witnessing at least 40 cremations per day as compared to 10 to 15 in normal circumstances.
Rajkot being the one of the biggest medical facilities in Saurashtra, the critically ill patients from Morbi, Junagadh, Gir-Somnath and Surendrangar districts are also referred here.
As per Covid protocol, all dead bodies of Covid patients are required to be cremated in the city only.