Mass funeral pyres reflect India's COVID crisis, Delhi gets requests to cut down city parks

As a part of funeral rite, wooden pyres are used in India to cremate a deceased but as more people continue to die from the deadly virus, more wood is needed to fuel the pyres.

With over 350 deaths recorded every day in recent days, Delhi has less and less space to cremate its dead. Outside graveyards in Delhi, ambulance after ambulance waits in line to burn the dead.

Reportedly, the facility at the crematorium is overworked that relatives of the dead have to lend a hand, including by moving firewood and making other arrangements. For instance, at the Sarai Kale Khan Cremation site, around 60-70 bodies are being handled daily because of the deadly second wave but the staff there, however, has capacity for only 22.

A few days back, the Revenue Minister of Karnataka R Ashoka stated that the government had initiated the process of identifying and developing land to set up temporary crematoriums.

Moreover, burial grounds are running out of space in many cities as glowing funeral pyres blaze through the night.

Furthermore, India is also facing an alarming shortage of medical and hospital supplies and country’s surge in coronavirus infections, growing at the fastest pace in the world.