Mass cremations become necessary in Delhi as bodies keep piling up

New Delhi: As the Capital continues to reel under the fierce fourth wave of the pandemic here amid an alarmingly rising death toll, crematoria and burial grounds in the city have run out of space. One such crematorium in the Seelampur area was packed with a parking lot adjacent to it being used as a makeshift space to conduct mass cremations.

In fact, at the crematorium, around seven ambulances with bodies inside them were lined up outside the premises. At the facility managed by the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Seva Dal, supervisor Deepak Sharma said that they have space for 65 bodies but the same has been increased to 75 now in view of the demand.

"Around 75 bodies have arrived as of 4 pm and 40 bodies are still lying at the hospital which now have to be divided among crematoriums...the pressure on the workers has increased a lot," Sharma said.

Jitender Singh Shunty who runs the non-profit medical service, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal, told wire agency Reuters, "No one in Delhi would have ever witnessed such a scene. Children who were 5 years old, 15 years old, 25 years old are being cremated. Newlyweds are being cremated. It's difficult to watch."

Moreover, in addition to this, some of the biggest crematoria in the city have also been overburdened with the family of those who had died, either desperately looking for space or waiting for hours and days, in some cases to get a chance to cremate their loved ones.

While the official death toll from the virus has already shown a significant spike, the severe oxygen crisis in the Capital has added to the load of these crematoria and burial grounds as many Covid suspects continue to lose their lives waiting for oxygen outside hospitals.

In addition to this, hospital mortuaries are filling up fast with the oxygen crisis already hitting home at one hospital — Sir Ganga Ram, from where it was reported on Friday morning that 25 extremely critical patients had passed on — most likely due to low-pressure oxygen and daily interruptions in their supplies.

On Friday, at Ganga Ram hospital, patients continued to collapse and die outside the Covid emergency ward, with bodies being packed off for cremations or burials almost immediately.

At the Seemapuri crematorium itself, Kumar, the supervisor said that the East Delhi Municipal Corporation had deployed four personnel, including himself, to manage and coordinate the activities at the crematorium in order to streamline the process of issuing receipts to relatives and burning bodies. At the main gate, at least 10 people were lined up at the registration counter to book a place for their family members.

"Around six bodies are currently on the waiting list and we are trying our best to provide them a space…we need around six quintals of wood everyday as per the demand..." Kumar said on Friday afternoon.

As Covid emergency wards face the brunt of the pressure in terms of the strain on resources, with some hospitals filling up casualty beds with twice or thrice its capacity even as more patients waited to get inside and be looked at by a doctor.

Moreover, the situation in Delhi has come to a point where hospital beds, while available, are not able to save patients due to a lack of oxygen. This is because at several hospitals such as GTB, LNJP, RML hospitals and Ganga Ram, Holy Family and many others, doctors are being forced to prioritise the already scarce oxygen for patients already admitted and critical.

With the overwhelming number of bodies piling up, particularly at the Seemapuri crematorium, six government school teachers in the district have now been directed to ensure proper removal of the bodies of Covid patients.

Delhi logged 24,331 fresh COVID-19 cases and a record single-day jump of 348 deaths on Friday while the positivity rate stood at 32.43 per cent.