Fund shouldn't be a hurdle for crematorium: HC

Jaipur: Taking cognizance of environment degradation and depleting green cover, it's been almost one year that Rajasthan High Court suggested Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) to set up an electric crematorium. But so far despite being among the 20 smart cities in the country, Jaipur has no such plans in the pipeline.
The HC had taken cognizance of the fact that Jaipur as a smart city needs to set up an electric crematorium."There is no electric crematorium in Jaipur which is claimed to be a modern city nor there any proposal for establishing it. It is submitted by learned counsel for JMC that there is scarcity of funds and that they are not in a position to establish it. In our view, the JMC should not hold back the establishment of electric crematoriums for lack of funds, in as much as it is essential facility for environmental protection," stated the Jaipur bench of the High Court.
According to environmentalist, "Every year, 50-60 million trees are burned during cremations in India, which results in about eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions. The traditional Hindu funeral pyre of one human body takes about 500 kg of wood. In India, funeral pyres consume around 50m trees a year, producing 500,000 tonnes of ash and 8m tonnes of carbon dioxide.
"We have been highlighting the issue for some time now. Everyday more than 80 camel carts of cut trees are brought into the city from Bassi, Chomu and Dausa,"said Babu Lal Jaju an environmentalist. Besides, similar is the scenario on the Agra road near Kanota where hundreds of trollies with cut trees can be seen every day.
According to data with the Nagar Nigam there are four major cremation grounds in the city and over a 100 small ones. Ironically there is an electric crematorium in Chandpole but the has been lying redundant for several years now.