Bengaluru: As Covid deaths rise, government allots four acres for cremation

Bengaluru: With Karnataka witnessing a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, families of Bengaluru's virus victims are facing a challenge to find place to cremate bodies. To overcome this Revenue Minister R Ashoka on Wednesday said that the government has allotted land for cremation of Covid-19 victims.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Ashoka said "With the Covid death count rising by the day, crematoria and burial grounds are seeing long queues of ambulances with bodies. Places like the Kudlu crematorium are extending remation into the wee hours of the next day. There's a long queue with families of victims waiting for hours. So now the government has decided to set up open-air crematorium on four-acre land at Tavarekere near Giddenahalli in Yelahanka constituency for cremation of the virus victims and reduce burden on Bengaluru crematoriums."

The decision comes after the minister told district administrations to identify government land for the purpose. These temporary facilities will be established near cities including in Bengaluru.

Ashoka wrote a letter to all the deputy commissioners in the State explaining the gravity of the situation arising from increasing Covid-19 cases and related deaths.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has reserved seven electric crematoriums – Medi Agrahara, Kudlu, Panathur, Kengeri, Sumanahalli, Peenya and Banashankari – exclusively for cremation of the bodies of Covid-19 victims. Earlier, four crematoriums — Medi Agrahara, Kudlu, Panathur and Kengeri — were set aside for Covid-19 deaths, and now three more — Sumanahalli, Peenya and Banashankari — have been added, in view of the rising number of deaths in the State. This measure has been taken so that there is no delay in the cremation of the bodies of Covid-19 victims.

Karnataka recorded 23,558 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday with 13,640 cases recorded in Bengaluru alone. This is the first time since the onset of the pandemic that the number of cases in a single day in Karnataka crossed 23,000.