Green crematoria Pyres - Burning Issues

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Dr. Harsh Vardhan Inaugurates Four, Pyres Of The Green Crematoria‘Air Pollution Control System For Crematoria’, Developed By CSIR-NEERI At Delhi’s Nigam Bodh Ghat Crematorium
Exceedingly high concentration of air emissions with respect to particulate matter, and other harmful gases have been measured in regions around the crematoria.
To address the high localized toxic emissions from crematoria, CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute(NEERI) has developed a technology knowhow to mitigate air pollution from Open Pyre Green Crematoria’s

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research- National Environmental and Engineering Research Institute
CSIR-NEERI is a research institute created and funded by the Government of India. It functions under the Ministry of Science & Technology.
It was established in Nagpur in 1958 with focus on water supply, sewage disposal,communicable diseases and to some extent on industrial pollution and occupational diseases found common in post-independent India.
CSIR has 38 national laboratories working in various areas of science and technology. CSIR-NEERI is one of those laboratories.
Our faith tells us we must do our last rites in this way.
All the ashes go into the rivers and carbon dioxide is creating global warming
UN figures show close to 10 million people die a year in India, where 85 per cent of the billion-plus population are Hindus who practice cremation
That leads to the felling of an estimated 50 million trees, leaves behind half a million tonnes of ash and produces eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, according to research by Agarwal’s Mokshda environmental group.
Poor family struggling to carry out a cremation with sparse damp wood. The fire went out repeatedly and the partially burned corpse was finally flung into the Ganges
We had to get religion on our side

Need of the hour

Air Pollution has become a grave problem in India with more than 120+ cities falling under non-attainment category as per the National Green Tribunal
In the recently announced General Budget 2021, a lot of emphasis has been given to allocate resource to mitigate the growing ambient air pollution related problem in India”.

Delhi has about 56 traditional cremation grounds where Hindus cremate bodies by burning massive piles of firewood in the open, billowing out clouds of black smoke into the sky.

The technology installed at VIP Pyre 3,4,5,6 comprises Fume collection and handling, Processing/cleaning, Utilities and Waste Handling systems.
The system is designed with an efficient scrubbing system offering reduced emission of smoke, oil/greases, hydrocarbons, and particulates etc., with ease of recycle and disposal of scrubbed liquid and solids.

Such technology helps to reposition our existing heritage by adopting clear methods for achieving our national and global commitments towards the environment
“The present emission control system with slight design modifications, can be extended to LPG/CNG and Diesel crematoria to future reduce the emission from these systems”.
Such innovation can also be applied to mitigate dispersed air pollution emitted from
unorganized and informal industrial sectors like
bakeries,
namkeen making,
or application areas, where wood is being utilized as a primary source of energy
The system like these should be proliferated, under programmes like NCAP, Swachh and Swasth Bharat Initiatives, across the country to reduce the dispersed emissions generated from crematoria thereby impacting the environment and societal health, at large

Many in the capital may not know that there are ghats here which offer environment-friendly substitutes to the conventional manner of cremating a dead.
At the city’s oldest cremation ground — Nigambodh Ghat — where more than 20,000 bodies are cremated in the conventional manner, which needs about four quintals of wood, that takes a complete day to burn and causes huge amount of pollution, there is also a cost effective and environment-friendly CNG crematorium, which is opted for by hardly a 1,000 families in a year.
This eco-friendly system is a cheaper option, at Rs 1,000, quite less than the cost of the traditional pyre which is around Rs 3,000. However, the capital cost of its installation is more than Rs 1.5 crore.
This machine uses natural gas, helps saving wood and according to experts, produces around 90 per cent less pollution than the funeral pyre.
The Ghat has another option, Mokshda Harit, which is a good substitute to the conventional pyre, as this one needs about two quintal less wood than the conventional way. This one costs Rs 1,200 and takes about two hours for the wood and the body to incinerate.