Crematoriums are the major contributors to air pollution in the city and residents living near these facilities are experiencing health hazard due to air pollution, revealed a study conducted by a local NGO Centre For Sustainable Development (CFSD) on Wednesday. CFSD conducted an audit of all 19 crematoriums of the city and surveyed 815 residents living in the vicinity. Ambazari ghat, Bharatwada ghat, Manewada ghat, Dighori ghat, Friends Colony ghat, Gangabai ghat, Kalamna ghat, Mokshadham ghat, Nara ghat, Nari Takshashila Nirvan ghat, Pardi ghat, Punapur ghat, Sahakar Nagar ghat, Shanti Nagar ghat, Vaishali Nagar ghat, Wathoda ghat, and Zingabai Takli ghat were surveyed during the study. According to the study, 60 per cent crematoriums in the city have no ‘chimneys’, which is essential to reduce the impact of air pollution in nearby residential areas. Out of 19 crematoriums, 8 facilities have chimneys in which only 5 are operational. Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has included Nagpur city into its non-attainment city’s list of National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) which require proper mitigation to improve the air quality.

 

Under NCAP, city got hefty funds from the Central Government in the name of improvement of the city’s air quality in last few years. The NCAP norms has already mentioned about the air pollution mitigation in crematoriums in all non-attainment cities. As per the norms, civic bodies should have to install chimneys in all such facilities to avoid the air pollution in close vicinity. “There is an utmost need to install electrostatic precipitator kind of device to filter air, chimneys in all facilities, and also to develop green buffer in all such crematoriums to avoid air pollution. NMC should follow the NCAP norms to mitigate pollution in crematoriums,” Leena Buddhe, Director, CFSD told The Hitavada. “Just beautification of crematoriums will not help to reduce the air pollution in the city. The public awareness are also needed and specially the residents who are living near such facilities,” claimed Buddhe. The study highlights the sheer scale of the challenge posed by crematoriums in the city. As per the study, around 77 per cent of citizens are dwelling in just 500 mt from the facility, and 58 per cent of respondents with children indicated that their child’s school is located just 1 km from the crematorium. A staggering 87 per cent respondents believe that such close proximity poses a health risk to their children.

 

Majority of the residents also reported increased health issues like burning eyes, persistent coughs and throat irritations. “Out of 19 crematoriums, 12 are solely using wood as fuel and each cremation consumes about 300 kg of wood which is a huge loss of trees for wood,” said Buddhe. Buddhe also said that only 6 out of the 19 surveyed facilities offer a more eco-friendly option of agricultural waste briquettes, which require around 250 kg for each cremation. The study recommended that the civic body should restore the non-operational chimneys and install new one in all remaining crematoriums on urgent basis. NMC should initiate research to compare the combustion efficiency of wood versus agricultural waste briquettes. The implementation of low-cost monitoring sensors can aid this study and yield accurate results, it stated. Some of the crematoriums are providing briquettes for cremation for free of cost. People are unaware about it. Civic body should spread awareness about the use of such briquettes in the place of wood. The study also recommended to conduct a health survey with the help of healthcare professionals in the vicinity of all 19 crematoriums to get a detail about the status of public health.