Furnaces in electric crematoria are breaking down

BBMP hopes makeshift open crematoria with more capacity will ease the load

It’s not just the city’s health infrastructure that is straining under the sheer volume of COVID-19 cases. Unable to bear the daily load of bodies, furnaces in Bengaluru’s 12 electric crematoria, which are functioning beyond their capacity, are breaking down. In the last week alone, three furnaces in Kudlu and Mysuru Road crematoria broke down. They are up and running again, but it is evident that they are not enough to cope with the death toll. More furnaces are on the verge of breakdown, said civic officials. This has spurred the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Pakile (BBMP) to start mass burning in open crematoria using firewood. Images of multiple pyres burning simultaneously, similar to those from Delhi, depict the extent to which the country’s IT capital is ravaged by the pandemic.