Cremation grounds full, kin tie urns to trees

With curfew on, residents unable to immerse ashes in Haridwar

BOX: Last rites put on hold

Patiala: In Patiala too, many people are waiting for lockdown to get lifted, as ashes of hundreds of people who died in Punjab are to be immersed in the Ganga in Haridwar. A caretaker at Bir Ji Dasondhi Ram Crematorium says, “We have around 25 small lockers for keeping the ashes, but all these lockers are now occupied. Now, we have started asking people to keep the ashes in a pot in the storerooms.” Aman Sood

Ravi Dhaliwal & Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur/Muktsar, April 12

The locker room of Gurdaspur’s main cremation ground on the Batala road is fast running out of space with people now being forced to tie the urns of ashes on trees either on the premises itself or near their homes thus ‘interrupting’ the final journey of the dead.

There are 20 lockers and presently, 14 are filled. The remaining six spaces are likely to be filled in the next few days. Despite there being some space, the kin think it is prudent to carry the ashes along with them when they go home after the last rites have been performed.

The caretaker sad the problem was not specific to Gurdaspur but could be seen throughout the country. “People are not being allowed to enter Haryana and Uttarakhand to go to Haridwar. The city has not seen a positive case and the authorities want to maintain that record. Hence, they are neither allowing anybody to enter nor exit. The city has become a sort of a containment zone. We do not have adequate space in the locker room,” he said.

An official said there was no bar on people transporting the ashes to different places for immersion. “They are reluctant to travel due to fear of the virus. In death cases, we are not stopping anyone,” he said.

“The disease has indeed changed the way people cremate their loved ones. We are issuing curfew passes to everyone who approaches us but the problem is people are not too interested in travelling to either Haridwar or Kiratpur sahib,” DC Mohammad Ishfaq said.

The lockdown and the Covid-19 spread have resulted in thinned out crowd in funerals and gatherings at all three cremation grounds of the city. There are also reports that people may not collect the urns at all fearing the ashes may contain the virus.

“This is blatantly wrong. The ashes do not contain the virus. We are educating people on this,” the DC said.

In Hinduism and Sikhism, the common belief is that a departed soul gains complete peace only after the deceased’s ashes are immersed in rivers. However, the Covid is threatening to put an end to this belief with relatives dreading they could get infected while travelling and consequently, they are no longer interested in immersions.

Due to the ongoing curfew, nearly 100 families of Muktsar district are also waiting to immerse the ashes of their loved ones in the Ganga at Haridwar.

The lockers made to keep the ashes at the cremation grounds have become full. In such a situation, the custodians of the grounds are asking the public to either immerse the ashes in some nearby canal or bury them in the soil.

Vijay Kumar, a resident, said, “My son passed away on March 18. Now, almost a month has passed but we are unable to immerse his ashes in the Ganga. Earlier, we could not hold his prayer ceremony due to the curfew. Further, priests are also not available at the Ganga these days.”