BENGALURU: Acute water shortage, especially during summer months, is not just causing miseries for the living; in a way, it is a problem for the dead too. This is because water is important for rituals pertaining to the dead. Many graveyards and cemeteries have dried up borewells. The resultant water scarcity is delaying the procedures. Bengaluru has as many as 132 burial grounds and 13 crematoria. Graveyards are maintained by the BBMP as well as various religious and private trusts, while the civic body alone maintains the crematoria (both electric and firewood).
Spread over 87 acres, Kalpalli Cemetery at Kathalipalya in Sarvagnanagar is said to be the largest Hindu graveyard in the state. It has cemetery as well as electric crematorium. According to Sowri Raj, the gravedigger, there is only one borewell and three tanks which can hold 5,000 litres of water each. But the borewell has dried up, and they are struggling to get water to fill up the tanks.
“We are struggling to manage. People who come to us with their dead will be grieving. If we say there is no water, it will just add to their misery. We do get water from the tankers, but till they arrive we have to wait,’’ he said. There are about 60 people in 15 houses on the premises where gravediggers, cleaners and other workers stay with their families. They too depend on the borewell. “Whenever there are more bodies coming, water in the tanks gets over. We either walk or go on bicycles to Jeevanahalli, which is 1.5km away, for a potful of water from a public tap,’’ another resident said.
The Harischandra Ghat in Malleswaram has burial ground as well as an electric crematorium. It is one of the oldest such places in Bengaluru, and there is Cauvery water connection, but the pipes are blocked.
“The pipes are just one inch in diameter and they are blocked. It is like we have water connection, but cannot use water because of that. We have bigger pipes for borewell, but there is no water in the borewell. Every time this happens, the dead body has to wait for its cremation,’’ Nagaraja, a staffer, said.
At Chamarajpet burial ground, they have similar issues. “We cannot ask family members of the deceased to get water,’’ one of the staffers said. Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjuna said at present water is supplied through private tankers. In the coming days, they plan to implement rainwater harvesting at graveyards, too, so that groundwater is recharged.