Saying goodbye, the green way

Come November 8 and Delhi's busiest cremation facility, the Nigambodh Ghat on the banks of the Yamuna, will get six new pyres. These will be somewhat unusual in that while wooden logs will be used to burn the corpses, like in the traditional Hindu manner, the amount of wood used will be far less. Instead of the 250-400kgs of wood that's required in general, these 'green' crematoriums will use 100-150 kgs, a 65-75% reduction.

Mokshada Green Crematorium System, as it has been christened, is the result of a quarter-century of research on shamshan ghats by Ghaziabad-based mechanical engineer Vinod Kumar Agarwal.

His attention was drawn to this excess need for pyre wood in 1992, when he saw pallbearers throw a body into the river because they couldn't find enough dry wood to burn it. Agarwal used his years of experience as a foundry manager to come up with an environment-friendly and energy-efficient alternative, while keeping in mind traditional Hindu rituals.

According to Agarwal's research, 500 to 600 lakh trees are cut for cremation across India every year, releasing 80 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide and eight lakh tonnes of ash into rivers. "Electric and gas-based crematoriums exist, but they haven't found acceptance among the tradition-conscious. In Delhi, there are only 13 gas and electric pyres that execute 50-60 cremations every day, as opposed to the 450 conventional crematoriums that see 900-1,000 cremations daily."

The Mokshda system works because it uses wood in the traditional way, says Agarwal. "We have channelised the flow of air to minimise heat wastage," he explains. Instead of placing the corpse on wood, which blocks circulation of oxygen needed for efficient combustion, leading to a higher utilisation of wood, Agarwal's solution entails placing the corpse on a raised stainless steel platform, allowing for efficient combustion. This platform has an open canopy with a chimney above, allowing the heated air to escape. "Religious leaders testify that this system adheres to religious cremation norms," says Agarwal.

Despite such validation, his NGO Mokshda Paryavaran Evam Van Suraksha Samiti has managed to install only 50 of these pyres around the country. Of these, four are in Mumbai (installed in 2008), six in Ahmedabad and Delhi will soon see a total of 12.

"In 2012, we compiled detailed project reports to install 15 Mokshda crematoriums on Manikarnika ghat in Varanasi and eight more in Allahabad, but those projects are stuck," he says.

More than bureaucratic procrastination or religious objections, what's prevented a greater acceptance of these crematoriums are wood sellers who stand to lose business, and the priests who are in cohorts with them. "This is the reason they don't tell people about it, or actively discourage people from opting for Mokshada," laments Agarwal.

Perhaps if PM Narendra Modi, who represents Varanasi in the Lok Sabha, champions Agarwal's energy-efficient, environment-friendly crematorium, things might change.

Life after death?

You could be a tree

In 2013, a Spanish design company called Estudi Moline came up with an innovative way to go green, designing a Bios Urn. The biodegradable pot contains a seed and can be filled with the ashes of loved ones who have passed away. When planted, the seed germinates into a shoot which, as it grows, draws nutrition from the ashes. As the Bios Urn website says, it's a way to change "the way people see death" by converting the "end of life" into a transformation, a "return to life through nature".