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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCovid in India: Mass cremations in parking lots {Graphic images in replies}
Mass cremations begin as Indias capital faces deluge of COVID-19 deathsDelhi resident Nitish Kumar was forced to keep his dead mothers body at home for nearly two days while he searched for space in the citys crematoriums - a sign of the deluge of death in Indias capital where coronavirus cases are surging.
On Thursday Kumar cremated his mother, who died of COVID-19, in a makeshift, mass cremation facility in a parking lot adjoining a crematorium in Seemapuri in northeast Delhi.
"I ran pillar to post but every crematorium had some reason ... one said it had run out of wood," said Kumar, wearing a mask and squinting his eyes that were stinging from the smoke blowing from the burning pyres.
India recorded the world's highest daily tally of 314,835 coronavirus infections on Thursday, with the second wave of the pandemic crushing its weak health infrastructure. In Delhi alone, where hospitals are running out of medical oxygen supplies, the daily rise is over 26,000.
https://www.reuters.com/world/india/mass-cremations-begin-indias-capital-faces-deluge-covid-19-deaths-2021-04-23/
EDIT: I am posting any of the photos - Warning: There are some in the replies.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,296 posts)speak easy
(9,096 posts)Up until recently, I thought they had dodged a bullet.
Response to speak easy (Original post)
dalton99a This message was self-deleted by its author.
brer cat
(24,401 posts)speak easy
(9,096 posts)Modi has been holding mega (or should that be MAGA) election rallies, right up until last week.
a kennedy
(29,458 posts)getagrip_already
(14,225 posts)Don't be revolted by the scenes of open air cremation; it is their cultural norm.
You can, and should, be upset that the death rate is so high they can't keep up in traditional settings.
speak easy
(9,096 posts)up until last week.
Yes I find the funeral pyres confronting - and did not post them for that reason, but the point of the article is I think , that the cremations have spilled out into parking lots.
malaise
(267,784 posts)Many of the pyres are near rivers and not just in India. Hindus in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago also cremate their dead.
What I will say is that Modi is as irresponsible as Trump.
speak easy
(9,096 posts)I find the photos confronting, and did not post them for that reason, but what the article was reporting is that people are having to set up makeshift facilities in parking lots.
malaise
(267,784 posts)and with mass cremations, I'm sure the process is nothing like the regular ceremonies, but funeral pyres are normal in India. I
I've been to a few of these funerals in the Caribbean and they do shock the sensibilities of those who have never attended them. I have friends who aren't Hindus who have been cremated this way by choice.
Response to speak easy (Original post)
malaise This message was self-deleted by its author.