At the Kannamapet burial ground in Chennai’s CIT Nagar, a family of four arrived on Tuesday, August 15, to pay respects to their late family member. The family cleared the area around the place where their loved one was buried and stood in silence. Just then the silence was disrupted as several vehicles carrying waste entered the grounds. As each vehicle passed by, a strong stench filled the air. The winds also carried the stench from the wet and dry waste, which was dumped at the far end of the premises, forcing the family to leave within 10 minutes of arriving.
This is a regular sight at crematoriums and burial grounds, where Battery Operated Vehicles (BOVs) carry waste into the burial ground as the Micro Composting Centres (MCCs) are installed within the premises. One of the family members, Anbazhagan, told TNM, “The waste being transported in and out when we come here to grieve is very disturbing and is frankly very insensitive.”
Between July and August 2023, TNM visited close to 10 crematoriums and burial grounds across Chennai city and found that several of them share the same fate as the one in Kannamapet or are ill-kept. Almost all the burial grounds and crematoriums are maintained by NGOs and trusts on behalf of the GCC. MCCs are functioning in 30 burial grounds situated across the 15 zones of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC). These areas include Nungambakkam, Kannamapet, Villivakkam, Mylapore and Moggapair among others.
Micro Composting Centre located at the Nungambakkam burial ground.
At the Nungambakkam burial ground on Nelson Manickam road, BOVs carrying waste and death processions entering the premises simultaneously, are common sights. Grieving families who enter the burial ground as a part of the procession are forced to encounter vehicles carrying waste parked on the premises. Further, those who wish to avail of crematory services are also forced to cross the reeking pits, since the composting units are located between the area devoted to burying and cremating.
An official who supervises the MCC unit at the burial ground told TNM, “Around 100-120 BOVs bring in waste from the five neighbouring wards.” The reeking composting pit in the burial ground is also adjacent to several graves and is barely 10 metres away from rows of graves. TNM also saw that the dry and non-degradable waste was dumped right opposite the composting pit area. “They leave things like thermocol, beds, plastics, tubes, etc here. Once or twice a week, a waste truck will come and collect it,” the official said.
Dry waste dumped inside the Nungambakkam burial ground.
At the Kannamapet burial ground, TNM spotted wet waste being dumped next to graves because the composting pits were full. Inside, sanitation workers were also segregating waste and leaving the non-degradable waste at the designated Material Recovery Facility (MRF) spots. “We segregate and dispose of all the waste here. There is a designated place to leave footwear, clothes, beds, tubelights, leather, etc.,” a sanitation worker told TNM. What makes it worse is that waste is not collected from the MRF regularly. “They wait for it to fill up. So sometimes the waste remains here for maybe even more than a month,” the worker said.
While similar problems were identified at the burial ground in Mylapore, the area primarily meant for public use is being used for storage. When TNM visited, several rows of smart carts – procured for the vendors of Marina Beach for Rs 16.47 crore – were stored due to no takers.
Smart Carts stored in Mylapore Burial ground.
Sameer, a researcher from Arappor Iyakkam in Chennai, has visited around 41 MCCs in ten out of the 15 zones in GCC, including the ones within burial grounds. “In most places, there is very little distance between the composting centres and the burial or cremation areas. In Adambakkam burial ground, there is a good distance, but when I visited, they had used up that space for the drying process,” he said.
Infrastructure amiss
Activist Jayaram Venkatesan commented, “Burial grounds and crematoriums should not be used as dump yards. In the city, the space available for burial is diminishing rampantly. Using burial grounds for installing composting units might not be the right solution.” He emphasised the need for good infrastructure to counter the problem of waste management and disposal in Chennai city.
Jayaram pointed out that there is no large-scale infrastructure to process degradable waste and recycle other materials, limiting the amount of waste which goes into landfills. “At present, Urbaser Sumeet, a private player, which had won a Rs 5,000 crore tender for solid waste management, is only displacing the waste. A bulk amount is going into transporting waste from the city to the Pallikaranai marshland. In addition, the government has spent at least Rs 5 to 10 lakh per MCC unit in the city. MCCs are only processing less than 5% of the approximate 2.5 metric tonnes of wet waste that is generated every day,” he said. A possible solution to end this will be to create infrastructure for composting larger quantities of waste, he added.
Negligence
While there are burial grounds free of MCC units in the city, TNM noted negligence on the part of the officials at the Virugambakkam burial ground at Erikarai road. When TNM visited the burial ground on August 16, storm water drain works were being undertaken. The drainage water which was being sucked out during the process was let out, flooding the graves. Upon asking the contract workers, they said, “The drainage water will dry off.” After TNM reported the incident to the concerned official at the burial ground, the drainage water was stopped from seeping into the graves.
Drinage water flooding a part of the burial ground in Virugambakkam.
Chennai Mayor R Priya said that action would be taken as the complaints were justified. When asked about the functioning of MCC units, she said, “We recently conducted a meeting and discussed the possible measures that can be undertaken to maintain crematoriums and burial grounds well. The concerns regarding MCC units functioning inside burial grounds are understandable. Measures will soon be taken to make our burial grounds more peaceful for the public.”