The growing population, coupled with the practice of developing over-ground concrete structures atop the graves, has led to an acute shortage of space in the only major burial site at Bhairab Danda across Bagmati River.
Officials from the Crematorium Management Service Committee (CMSC), Pashupati Aryaghat, said the practice of using coffins to bury non-cremating Nepali communities who die in foreign lands has contributed to the problem.
These communities customarily do not use coffins to bury the dead.
According to CMSC, Aryaghat, some 20 to 25 bodies are buried in the area every month.
Traditionally, the 97-ropani burial site was intended exclusively for Sanyasi communities belonging to 10 castes - Giri, Puri, Bharati, Ban, Parbat, Sagar, Saraswati, Ashram, Aranya and Tirtha.
The practice was broken in 1996 owing to the shortage of burial sites. The deceased of the Rai and Limbu communities, small children, and even Christians, are buried in the area, now known as the Bishworup jungle.
More and more graves are being squeezed in each year, making it very difficult to find space for new plots. To make matters worse, there is growing practice of using concretized graves. In addition, the CMSC does not have any marking system in place to trace the graves, leaving them unsure which space is free and which is occupied.
“It takes hours to find space for burying the dead,” said Ganesh Nath Dhakal, an official with the CMSC, Aryaghat. “Our grave diggers have to walk around the jungle, digging in several spots to find the space these days.”
Officials at CMSC said it takes at least 10 years for a coffined body to decompose, seven years longer than it takes for those buried without coffins.
Raju Kumar Regmi, chairman of the CMSC, Aryaghat, complained those government bodies concerned have not given heed to the issue. “This is a very serious problem,” he said. “Anything related to deaths is a very sensitive matter.”
Realizing the gravity of the problem, the then government in 1992 made a Cabinet decision to arrange alternative burial sites. The decision is yet to be implemented, complained officials of the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT).
The PADT even started demolishing structures built over concretized graves to address the problem some six years back. The move was aborted halfway as it invited strong protests from the deceased kin.
Regmi said they have asked people to plant trees instead of developing concrete structures on grave sites in memory of their dead. “However, only a few people are following our request,” he said.
Currently, Kathmandu’s Muslim community buries their dead near Swayambhu, while the Christians burial site is located in Bungmati area.
koshraj@myrepublica.com
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