Corpses arrive in a steady stream. It’s business as usual for the priests. Surrounded by the dead seeking moksha, they chant hymns as bells cling rhythmically. Smoke billows from five pyres that burn simultaneously as logs of wood and garlands lay scattered.
“My relative just passed away. She was 89 years old. It was her last wish to be cremated on the banks of Ma Ganga,” says Rajan Tiwari as she tries to shoo away the dogs that are trying to get close to the body. “She is lucky that she got cremated here,” she adds, standing on the banks of the Manikarnika Ghat, Varanasi’s hub for cremations. For Hindus across the country, being cremated on the banks of the Ganga and having their ashes immersed in the river is the highway to heaven. It is considered the way to attain moksha and escape rebirth.
Manikarnika Ghat is an unsettling sight for most visitors. For Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team, who are busy preparing the `20,000 crore Namami Gange programme, the biggest challenge would be to regulate this ancient Hindu custom. Cremation on the banks of the Ganga is a major pollutant. A whopping 350 tonnes of partially burnt corpses and bones are dumped into the river every year, says B D Tripathi, a member of the National Ganga River Basin Authority.
Another 10,000 tonnes of ash and other cremation-related material also get discarded in the holy river each year. “The lower portion of the torso does not burn properly. It is just tossed into the river,” says Tripathi.
Not far from Manikarnika ghat is Lanka, a locality bustling with activity. For Rohit Tiwari, one of the shopkeepers here, more deaths means more business. “We sell everything that is required for cremation. We have been in this business for a few decades,” he says. More shops have sprung up in Lanka over the last few years as the business is flourishing.
“We see more and more number of cremations. People come with corpses from other states as well,’’ he says. Rohit’s shop cannot be missed due to its name: Funeral Parlour. “On an average, around 300 corpses are cremated everyday in both the ghats. I earn `15,000-20,000 a day,” says Rohit.
No scientific study is needed for a common man to understand the pollution levels of the Ganga. A dip is all it takes. A dip at Assi ghat will leave you with a foul smell that lingers for the rest of the day. “I stopped bathing here many years ago, though I visit the Assi ghat everyday,” says Pandit Ramdas, a local priest. “I just pray standing on the ghat.”
Ramdas, now in his mid-70s, recalls his childhood days when he used to swim in the Ganga for hours. “Dead bodies used to be cremated even then, but the numbers were very less and there wasn’t much pollution. Now thousands of are cremated. Industrial waste is drained into the river. Cows, buffaloes, goats and donkeys that die are tossed into the river,” he laments.
“Every year, about 35,000 bodies are burnt at Manikarnika and Harishchandra ghats in Varanasi. Nearly 18,000 tonnes of wood are required for the cremations. Can someone even think of cleaning the Ganga at this stage?” says Tripathi.
According to the National Ganga River Basin Authority, the amount of toxins, chemicals and dangerous bacteria found in the river water is almost 3,000 times higher than the safety limits prescribed by WHO. It is estimated that 80,000 to one lakh people bathe at the Varanasi ghats everyday.
If it’s festival season, the number rises significantly. About 450 million people live along the river’s 2,500 km course, and about 6 per cent of the world’s population are dependent on the river. Instances of people tossing dead bodies directly into the Ganga, for lack of money for cremation, have always been reported from parts of Uttar Pradesh, including Varanasi. Though the authorities in the state claim that these incidents have come down, experts insist it is still prevalent.