Pet crematorium in S Delhi

If you are a pet lover and want to bid a dignified farewell to your faithful friend, you would soon have an option to cremate him at a crematorium meant for pets.

Currently, a majority of people bury their dogs in their gardens or dump them in Yamuna. It happens because the only other option is perform cremation at an NGO-run electric crematorium located in the city’s outskirts, nearly six kilometres away from Chattarpur Mandir.

However, the civic body has now planned to open four such crematoriums, one each in all four administrative zones – West, South, Central and Najafgarh zone. The corporation has also decided to set up up a CNG crematorium for pets.

“To start off, we would open one this year. A formal request for allotting land has been sent to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). We have requested the authority to allot a plot spread over 2,500-3,000 square metre. Once we get the land, the crematorium would be established at the earliest,” said a senior corporation official.

No exact location

While the officials at this stage refused to give the exact location of crematorium, sources said the first crematorium is likely to come up at Najafgarh area. The project is likely to be taken up on priority basis, tell officials, as it has been made a part of the budgetary proposals for the next financial year (2013-14).

The decision comes in wake of repeated demands from pet lovers and animal rights activists, officials said.

“Several people approached the civic body in past with requests for such a facility. They argued that burying animals in open area runs the risk of other animals digging up the carcass. Such burial could also contaminate the groundwater,” said an official, adding that street dogs would also be cremated at the facility.

Dog sterilisation centres

Apart from establishing crematoriums, the civic body has also planned to open four dog sterilisation centres. Currently, the civic body operates one centre in Lajpat Nagar – the only such facility among all three corporations. “All four administrative zones would have one dog sterilisation centre each. The corporation has written to DDA for alloting land for the purpose,” said Mukesh Yadav, spokesperson of South Corporation.