A group of friends of Sundargarh, who have beenvoluntarily cremating Covid bodies, have now decided to immerse the leftover bones of 56 persons kept in the Sundargarh Swargdwar in Triveni Sangam at Prayag in Allahabad.
The family members of the deceased have not yet gone to crematorium, neither have they responded to the phone calls of the in-charge of the crematorium to collect the leftover bones. According to the Hindu tradition the bones are kept after cremation of deceased for immersion in water bodies. It is believed that the immersion of bone leads to ‘moksha’of the soul. These left over bones have been kept in 56 separate Kalash (sacred water vessel) with white cloths covering them in a room at theSwargadwar. The authorities are waiting for their family members to hand over them. The mobile numbers of the family member and name have also been tagged with each Kalash.
As per Government guideline, after 90 days of preservation of bones, these volunteers will start the process for immersion. Significantly, three close friends identified as Sidhanta Kumar Panda, Manoj Kumar Tirpathy and Sisir Kumar Behera have been rendering their services to the needy and helpless persons for the last 20 years and have also cremated more than 1,000 bodies till date. In the first wave of Covid 19, they had cremated 76 covid bodies. After being inspired in the service of these three friends, Kamlesh Nathani, a businessman of Sundargarh joined them in the second wave of Covid 19. Later Bijay Kumar Hota, Deben Sahu of Sundargarh also joined them in cremating Covid bodies. In second wave of Covid, they have cremated 230 covid bodies within last 46 days.