Urns are piling up in a crematorium in COVID-19-hit Morena town of Madhya Pradesh as a lockdown in place to stall the outbreak has meant people
cannot carry out funerary rituals and immerse the ashes in nearby rivers.
Ironically, the coronavirus transmission in the town began after a man, who returned from Dubai and later tested positive, and his wife organised a "mrityu bhoj" for several hundred people in the vicinity on March 20, leading to 10 of the attendees catching the infection over the next few days.
"The kin of at least 20 people who have died due to various reasons since the lockdown was announced have not been able to carry out post-cremation rituals. Some 10 urns containing the ashes of the deceased are kept in our lockers," Morena Badokhar crematorium managing committee functionary Suresh Gupta.
"Since the borders of the district are sealed due to the lockdown, people are unable to take the urns to sacred rivers close by to immerse the ashes. People mostly used to go the Ganga flowing past Seron in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh," he said.
Local resident Deepak Sharma said his mother passed away on March 27 but he was turned away by priests at Seron despite getting permission from authorities to make the journey during lockdown.
"The priests were afraid of legal repercussions. I returned with the urn containing my mother's ashes and have kept in the locker at Badokhar crematorium," Sharma said.
The authorities have banned all kinds of functions as part of social distancing norms to fight the virus outbreak.
Morena has been under curfew since April 2 when the Dubai returnee and his wife tested positive for coronavirus.
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