COVID 19 Pandemic or the Novel Corona Virus 2019 has terrorised the living communities. Part I

By Malini Shankar

Digital Discourse Foundation

With death rates and mortalities increasing because of the COVID 19 Pandemic, disposal of COVID 19 dead bodies has become a civic challenge.  Hospitals are not giving the mortal remains of COVID 19 victims to their families even for funerals.

This deprivation of culturally sanctioned funeral rites in India or an opportunity for loved ones to take leave of the deceased has created even more panic.  The message that the general population gets is, “if we get infected, not only will treatment and isolation not allow us a loving care while living, neither will we get a loving funeral when we die”. This is a potential mental health hazard for the living – in these times of a terrorising Pandemic.

ICMR's guidelines do not prohibit handing over the dead body to the relatives, although the Karnataka State Government Guidelines - for instance - does prescribe transportation of COVID 19 mortalities from the hospital straight to a graveyard/ dumping site. 

ICMR's guidelines are contradictory too:

Covid-19 patients may be labelled as medicolegal cases by the doctor in emergency and it will be sent to mortuary and police will be informed, which may necessitate a medico-legal autopsy for clarity in the cause of death”.

But ICMR's guidelines clearly stipulate under the section 9. Autopsies on COVID-19 dead bodies that “Autopsies should be avoided” 

Then 

“Only the lungs of dead COVID patients, if handled during an autopsy, can be infectious”, 

Such contradictory guidelines confound observers and medical practitioners.

Then

Coronavirus: ICMR issues guidelines for autopsy in coronavirus cases; no invasive technique allowed. The investigating police officer must proactively take steps to waive off unnecessary autopsies during such a pandemic situation, the guidelines said.

A lot of questions remain unanswered about disposal of the COVID 19 mortalities. Common sense – rooted in traditional wisdom - prescribes cremation so that any trace of the virus is eliminated during cremation. But not only is cremation being avoided, mass burial of victims is being undertaken callously in parts of South India.

There is a concern that burial as a cultural practice is being colonised. Pan American Health Organisation PAHO guidelines on disposal of mortalities in disaster situations and the WHO study Management of Dead Bodies in Disaster Situations largely speaks of burial and has included checklists and guidelines for burial of mortalities which we will read in detail in the 3^rd part of this article.  

The current public health crisis has left many questions in public health management unanswered leaving room for hearsay, rumour mongering, and in an era of social media terror – adds to the panic of the Pandemic.

In India, epidemiologists had said June - July 2020 will see cases peaking. Indeed it has. Pity is, the Lockdown period was not used to prepare for this peak. The mortalities have increased and social media videos have started circulating showing callous disregard and dumping of COVID 19 victims in mass graves. 

Cultural practises vary. The Hindus cremate, the Christians and Muslims bury, the Parsees offer the mortal remains to the elements, Buddhists conduct a funeral service and then cremate unless it is a medico legal / legal case which may require exhumation – hence burial is recommended only in such rare cases amongst Buddhism practitioners. 

Indigenous people practice diverse funeral rites including embalming / abandoning cadavours in caves. 

Some tribes like the Soligas in southern Karnataka bury their dead, place their earthly belongings over rocky epitaphs on the graves.

Callous burial Karnataka,

Videos emerged of callous burial - by throwing the cadavours of victims of COVID 19 - in Pondicherry, Karnataka, and other places. In Mexico a helicopter airdropped dozens of cadavours for a marine burial.

In New Delhi the Lodhi Road Crematorium was the site of discarded PPE – a potential health hazard begging civic duties and awareness in a callous population. If callous dumping of used PPE was a scandalous environmental crime consider insensitive dumping of COVID 19 mortalities in mass graves. But we shall deal with environmental hazards in a separate article.

Dr. Jayanthi Manohar, a Vedic scholar in Bangalore says “Traditional agrometeorological wisdom has its genesis in the canons of Vedic Knowledge. For Indian agrometeorological conditions, cremation is a best practise because fire destroys viruses”. Even if Vedic knowledge discounts emission levels on account of cremation, the Agro meteorological conditions of the subcontinent, - privy to the planet’s greatest blessing – Monsoons – possibly neutralises the emissions obtaining from cremation…. It’s an area of research begging attention of scholars and scientists – Vedic or mainstream. 

Dr. S.R. Leela another Vedic scholar alludes to “fire being a purifying element of Mother Nature;” she explains that cremation annihilates the virus, and considers it a culturally sanctioned best practise for pandemic situations.  She also says fire is excoriation for a soul knocking on the doors to heaven.  

Cannot help asking these Vedic scholars a question: Why doesn’t Vedic Knowledge / holy traditional wisdom prescribe a civil mentality towards cleanliness of the environment among Indians? Funeral rites pollute the surroundings so much as the preceding photographs reveal. 

“What else can be the answer other than the all engulfing callousness, apathy and utter negligence? It is prescribed in the Smritis that all waste generated including night soil should be covered with mud before disposal. But who cared? Death ceremonies also faced the same fate as all others”. Dr. S.R. Leela explained.

Burial vs. cremation

Why do some Indian State Governments’ and Government of India guidelines prescribe burial instead of cremation? Relatives and family members of the deceased are not being allowed to say their goodbyes to the deceased loved ones for fear of infection. This is ostensibly because in the hours after death is declared, - when rigour mortis is setting in, parts of the body tissues - like muscles - may still not be dead.

“According to the existing scientific knowledge, Corona virus requires a living cell to survive. Some cells like muscles respond for up to 4 hours after clinical death. We don’t have absolute scientific evidence as to whether corona virus dies immediately after death. The mode of transmission is considered to be through droplets or aerosols but other modes of transmission are being further investigated. ” says Dr. P.S. Varghese head of the Department of Forensics St. Johns University of Medical Sciences in Bangalore in an exclusive interview to Digital Discourse Foundation.

Questions remain:

1.      How can mortalities be carriers of infectious viruses? 

2.      Is cremation better than burial in tropical biomes like the 

subcontinent? Or is burial the safest means of disposal of the dead

during a pandemic?

3.      A whole bunch of hydrometeorological disasters plague the

   Subcontinent at different seasons: 

Avalanches, Blizzards, Cloudbursts, Coastal Incursion, Cyclones, 

Climate change, Droughts, Desertification, Epidemics, (construed

 as an effect of climate change) Floods, Flash Floods, Famine (is a

 result of drought), Forest Fires, Fog, Hailstorms, Landslides,

 Mudslides, Pest attack, Sandstorms, Sea surge, Storms, squalls,

 thunderstorms, Tsunamis and urban floods. God forbid if the

 municipal worker buries a COVID 19 victim and any one of the

 above enlisted extreme weather events washes off the freshly dug

 grave, will it not be a dire threat to the communities living

 nearby? This will not be the case in cremation.

4.      India has come up with a solution to the question of Carbon 

emissions emanating from cremation: CNG fuelled crematoria.

5.      What if the infection on mortal remains contaminate ground

 water table around the cemeteries? Contamination of ground

 water table by a lethal virus forebodes ill even for future

 generations of the Human and Animal kingdoms. 

6.      Will burial kill the virus even if they survive on a few tissues of the corpse?

7.      How much land will be needed for burying a massive population? 

Cultural practices and health and hygiene standards demand 

spacing graves. 

Is Land Use Planning at legislative level significant for this at all? 

India does not even have a Land Use Policy / legislation.

Picture credits:  Malini Shankar, UN Photo Library, National Disaster Response Force of Government of India, Creative Commons, Reshmi Dasgupta (Facebook) 

To be Continued

This article can be reproduced but not edited because of the sensitivity oftechnical details.