As COVID bodies burn, residents fume

People living near crematoriums forced to lock themselves up, trees turn brown

“Now he will pour diesel on the pyre to make it burn quickly,” says G. Ramulu watching from the terrace of his three-storeyed house in Bapu Nagar. And just as he predicts, a crematorium worker runs with a jerrycan of fuel and sloshes it over the wood pile making the fire roar into the air. Four other pyres burn simultaneously, and two more bodies arrive in ambulances in quick succession at noon time on Saturday. The trees in the crematorium have turned brown by the continuous burning of corpses of COVID patients. As the number of cremations go up in the city, residents living in the surrounding areas are being forced to lock themselves in their homes. While Hyderabad has two cremation grounds on either bank of the Musi River, one near Purana Pul and the other at Amberpet, a large number of cremations are taking place in the grounds which are within the city. The Panjagutta cremation ground is almost in the heart of the city surrounded by Banjara Hills and Ameerpet. The ESI Cremation ground is near the densely populated Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar.