In the mayhem of the Pandemic, in all the death and devastation, is it right to lose sight of the environmental toll of cremating our loved ones and what it means for those they leave behind?

“Authorities in Delhi are being asked to cut down trees in the city for kindling.”

Reports such as this are to be expected as more and more trees are needed to feed the rising death rate due to the pandemic.

Discounting the millions of tons of carbon emissions per year due to the ritual Hindu tradition of cremating the dead on open-air pyres usually close to a river or other water sources, this age old ritual requires cutting down of millions of trees, a practise in the wake of a rising population contributes to substantial air and river pollution.

Every traditional Hindu pyre requires between 300-400 kgs of wood per individual cremation and burns for 4-6 hours; this on an average is one tree per individual depending upon the quality and age of the tree. Given an estimate of close to 1,000,000 deaths per annum, 50-60 million trees are burned during cremations in India, which results in about eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions. Add to this felling also means loss of oxygen and groundwater recharge capacity.

A study by IIT Kanpur on 53 cremation sites based on a conservative amount of 216 Kg of wood per cremation, concluded that 2129 Kg of carbon monoxide, 33 kg of sulphur dioxide, 346 kg of PM10 and 312 kg of PM2.5 are released from cremation sites into the atmosphere every day in the city of Delhi alone.

Delhi has only two crematoriums with Electric and CNG cremation facilities, despite which less than 5% of people opt for the greener options. A renowned sociologist commented on the dismal percentage who opt for greener choices saying that “we follow what we have seen being followed for generations”. Our forefathers lived in a less crowded, cleaner and greener world, we no longer have that privilege. Time to change to more conscious options that benefit us and the future generations.

Sign this petition so that we can lobby for greener crematoriums with agro-waste, cowdung cakes, CNG, electric and solar energy used instead of wood.