People uses cowdung cakes to burn dead in Darbhanga

Breaking an age-old tradition, people in a district of the Eastern Indian state of Bihar are turning to cow dung cakes, instead of damp firewood, in order to cremate bodies in what is being considered a revolutionary step aimed at conserving energy.

“We place the kin’s body in a sitting position inside a ditch dug out with the help of villagers and then cover it (body) from all sides with cow dung cakes before setting it afire; this reduces the body to ashes without letting the foul odour from the burning body mix with the air, “ said Ravi Bhusan, a villager from Darbhanga town, some 122km north of Patna. Darbhanga is the only district in Bihar where people have taken to this practice.

“Cremation by this practice is not only cheap and time-saving but is also contributes to the conservation of energy and corrects ecological imbalances,“ he said. Explaining further, he pointed out that according to Hindu mythology, wood from the mango tree was required to cremate the bodies. This meant that a full-grown tree had to be cut down in order to meet demand.

“This had been posing severe threats to forestation in the region. Moreover, the cremation of the bodies by this method had been causing air pollution since the people were using damp firewood to enable the bodies burn fully, causing a great deal of smoke,“ said Dr Vidyanath Jha, a researcher at the botany department of CM Science College, Darbhanga, who has been encouraging the masses to adopt this practice in the interests of protecting nature. There has been a particular threat to mango trees since they are considered very auspicious in Hindu belief.

Officials had said that the practice was normally used only in flood-prone areas where the people found it difficult to consign the body to flames owing to lack of firewood and sufficient space. But today even towns in Darbhnaga were observing this practice.

The state government has in the meantime planned to construct raised platforms at the cremation sites in order to check air pollution and the huge consumption of firewood. “We have worked out a plan under which it will require only about 100 to 120kg of firewood, instead of over 350kg to cremate the bodies; this will indeed check pollution,” said Prem Kumar, a senior official at the public health and engineering department.link