VILLUPURAM: The pandemic situation has brought out the best as well as the worst in people. In one such incident near Gingee in Villupuram district, the family of a 52-year-old man, who succumbed to Covid, was left in a quandary for a whole night after villagers in his native were up in arms against burying him there.
According to local sources, the deceased, a native of Meledaiyalam village here, was staying in Narasingarayanpettai near Gingee. On July 24, he was admitted to a private medical college hospital in Vellore with Covid-19 symptoms. He tested positive the next day and undergoing treatment.
However, the man succumbed on Tuesday morning. Based on his wish, his relatives decided to take his body to his native village Meledaiyalam and bury the body in the cemetery for Muslims there. Relatives in the village made arrangements and had dug up a pit for the burial.
Meanwhile, the information of his death and the burial plans spread in the village. The locals gathered at the two entry points of the village on Tuesday night in an attempt to stop the ambulance carrying the body from entering the village. Since the cemetery was situated in the middle of the village, the residents were scared that the virus might spread from the dead and thus refused to allow the burial.
At one point, they even dug up pits on the road to village and parked tractors in the middle of it to prevent the entry of the ambulance. The relatives of the victim held talks with the villagers in vain. Subsequently, the relatives took the ambulance to Gingee, where they parked it near the Government Hospital there. Since the management agreed for the burial, the body was immediately taken to and buried in the land opposite Periyakaanjakulam pond near the mosque in Kothamanagalam.