Kathmandu, May 3
As the number of deaths due to Covid-19 is increasing in the Kathmandu valley, the Nepal Army that is assigned to cremate or bury most of the bodies has begun making and using makeshift pyres on the bank of the Bagmati in the Pashupati area.
So far, the Covid-19 victims would be cremated at the single electric crematorium only so as to avoid the risk of infection. However, the army has been getting around 30 assignments every day this week and it is beyond the electric facility’s capacity, informs the army spokesperson Santosh Ballav Paudyal.
The electric crematorium takes one and a half hours to cremate a body. Hence, even if it operates 24 hours, it can cremate only 16 people a day, which is only around a half of the deaths that the army is reported to every day.
Nonetheless, the army has been making the makeshift pyres quite away from other pyres in general use.
