Bodies pile up at crematoria, burial grounds as Bengaluru reels with second Covid-19 wave

The BBMP has done little to set up 10 new burial grounds for the final rites of people from the minority communities

At a time when crematoria across the city have been overburdened by the second wave of Covid-19, the authorities are yet to fulfil a promise they had made last year.

While the BBMP last week reserved seven electric crematoria for Covid-19 victims, it has done little to set up 10 new burial grounds for the final rites of people from the minority communities.

Bodies, many of Covid victims, are beginning to pile up at Christian cemeteries and Muslim Qabrastans, and space is fast running out.

Read | Covid-19 deaths overwhelm Bengaluru crematoriums as daily cases, toll surge

On April 16, the Archbishop of Bangalore, Rev Peter Machado, wrote to BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta, seeking five acres of land on the outskirts for burying Christian victims of Covid-19. He hasn’t raised the matter for the first time. On July 13, 2020, the archbishop submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on the same matter. Despite the chief minister’s approval, the matter remains pending with the Revenue Department.

“The issue lost steam as the death rate plummeted considerably. But the second wave of Covid has begun to hit us even more hard and we need to attend to the rising number of deaths within the community,” the archbishop’s letter states.

Christians in Bengaluru reported about 400 Covid deaths between July and December last year, or an average of nearly 70 fatalities a month. But the second wave, which began last month, has reported a sharp rise in fatalities. There have been 233 deaths in the last two months. This works out to an average of 117 fatalities a month or a 100% jump over the previous months, according to J A Kantharaj, the spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Bangalore.

“It’s a conservative estimate. The actual numbers could be disturbing,” he said, adding that cemeteries at Hosur Road, Mysuru Road and Kalpalli are fast running out of space.

Last year, the-then BBMP commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad had announced setting up 10 burial grounds in the city and the outskirts.

Gupta, the BBMP chief commissioner, acknowledged the problem but said he was yet to look into the proposal. “I will check with the officials and see if the proposal was still relevant,” he told DH.

J Manjunath, Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru Urban, said the project hadn’t taken off yet.

According to him, land was identified in 10 villages. Two sites were handed over to the BBMP about a month ago, while a third site has a minor complication about the land allotment. The remaining seven sites are in the process of being handed over to the BBMP, he added.