For the first time after several years, eight unclaimed bodies at the Government Wenlock Hospital were buried at the Hindu graveyard in Nandigudde here on Saturday.
They were handed over by the Mangaluru City Corporation to the Mangalore Chapter of Human Rights Federation of India, a voluntary organisation, which has been fighting for an honourable burial of unclaimed and unidentified bodies. The federation took up the issue after reports of alleged sale of unclaimed cadavers to medical colleges, for Rs. 10,000 a body.
On May 2, the federation was given possession of the bodies. Each body was brought in a separate ambulance from the Wenlock Hospital mortuary to the graveyard.
A group of three musicians led by singer Bhaskar from Bolar, who sang bhajans as the bodies were lowered from the ambulances and taken to the place of burial. Each body was wrapped in a white cloth and flowers were placed on them. Activists and ambulance drivers took each body to the place of burial and it was buried with prayers.
Following this burial, the load at the Wenlock Hospital’s mortuary has reduced. The number of bodies at the mortuary has come down to 10 bodies of which six are unidentified. The process of their identification was on, an official at the hospital said.
