Crematorium bars staff from touching bodies

Rush of family members of deceased, who used to join funeral cortege, has reduced

04DEL CREMATION GROUND

The management at Moksh Dham, one of the largest cremation grounds in Greater Noida, has prohibited its staff from engaging in any physical contact with bodies being brought to it for funeral rites lest they contract COVID-19.

While the number of funerals performed here, a daily average of one to two, remains more or less intact, the rush of family members who used to accompany the bodies has become negligible compared to the usual.

“We have 24 chita sthals [funeral pyre spots]. This is the biggest cremation ground in the area. We see one to two cremations daily. That number hasn’t been affected due to this pandemic. Death is death. It comes when it wishes, irrespective, of whether or not there is a lockdown. And especially when such a disease has spread,” said Pandit Sachin Sharma, chief priest at the facility.

Asked whether any COVID-19-related cremation had taken place at the facility, Mr. Sharma said he suspected one took place on Friday, but he chose not to know the truth.

One suspected case

“There was one body here yesterday [Friday]. The relatives said the death had happened at a hospital. There was something visibly wrong with the mouth of the deceased. I didn’t ask what the reason of the death was. But we are very careful since this virus outbreak. We do not touch the bodies, at all. Especially, those of individuals who passed away during treatment for one condition or another at hospitals,” he said.

Located down a dusty road that branches off a service lane adjacent the Noida Expressway which connects Noida to Greater Noida, apprehensions related to COVID-19 and the strict enforcement of the nationwide lockdown aimed at containing its community spread had, however, affected the footfall at its 15-bigha campus.

“This entire parking area used to get packed with vehicles of the kin of the deceased who would be part of the funeral, but since this pandemic broke out only the immediate family accompanies the body. And, that too, not all the family members. Mostly the adults,” Mr. Sharma said.