Towering above the Harish Chandra Ghat and its smoking pyres is Varanasi’s only electric crematorium. But despite its dominant placing, it’s still struggling to gain a toehold. Its broken windows, chipped cement exteriors and locked shutters tell the story. Launched in 1989 to make cremations more affordable and river-friendly, it has been lying unused since December 6, 2010, as its electric coils and furnace bricks need replacing. Employees at the crematorium, meanwhile, play cards.
This is not a one-off situation. Locals say every two years or so, the crematorium remains shut in a state of disrepair for long stretches. In the holiest of Hindu cities, where cremation along the banks of the Ganga is what millions hope for and where over 35,000 bodies are cremated annually, popularising an electric crematorium has been a difficult proposition—and an inefficiently managed one at that. Hriday Prakash Dixit, a junior engineer with the Varanasi Nagar Nigam, acknowledges that problems exist with the crematorium, especially the erratic power supply. “Also, most people believe that one can get solace only if the cremation is carried out traditionally at the ghats,” he adds.
The bodies being burnt at the crematorium have remained more or less constant, numbering around 15-20 daily. At Rs 500, it is more affordable than the traditional funeral that costs over Rs 3,000. Its services, when available, are mainly used by the poor and the authorities who bring in the bodies of the unidentified. Relatives are given an urn containing the ash remains, which are then emptied into the Ganga. This method avoids the damage caused by half-burnt body parts being occasionally dumped into the river after the wood used in a traditional pyre burns out.
Another innovation—the introduction of flesh-eating turtles into a sanctuary near Varanasi to eat the bodies dumped into the river—has been a failure. Most of the turtles have been hunted and killed for their flesh, including the ones from the new batches released into the waters.
