Lone electric crematorium sees rising body count
Bhubaneswar: The crematorium at Satya Nagar — the only electric crematorium of the city — is handling five to six bodies every day, up from the roughly five it would handle every week before the Covid outbreak. Official sources said the majority of the bodies being disposed now are of Covid patients.
The city has 1,100 Covid beds across three hospitals. These hospitals cater to patients from other districts too. The bodies of patients who pass away are sent to the city crematorium in accordance with established protocol. The crematorium also handles bodies of patients from nearby districts, like Cuttack and Angul, in case of any problems in those areas.
In case of death of a Covid patient, the BMC brings the body to the Satya Nagar crematorium straight from the hospital. On an average, five to six bodies are cremated here every day. Some families prefer traditional wood cremation for their loved ones, said an officer of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), under whose control lies the body disposal unit.
Officials said the crematorium was sanitized twice daily and only authorized persons were allowed to enter. Police are also deployed during transportation and disposal of bodies of Covid patients.
In 2016, the Odisha State Pollution Control Board had revealed that the smoke generated from burning of bodies at Satya Nagar contained PM-10, which can cause pulmonary diseases. While the permissible limit of PM-10 is 100 microgram per metre cube, the raw (unfiltered) smoke released through the grille of the crematorium contains PM-10 of up to 200 microgram.
The Satya Nagar crematorium has been in existence since 2001. The BMC plans to create two more crematoria but they will be traditional ones.