Ghatkopar cemetery rests its case

JULY 16: Till only a week ago, it was written off as a near-dead end. Yet, it took only one cataclysmic moment to clear the debris of a tw...

JULY 16: Till only a week ago, it was written off as a near-dead end. Yet, it took only one cataclysmic moment to clear the debris of a two-decade-long dispute that held up the permission to open this Ghatkopar W cemetery. Since Wednesday night, the Gaibansha kabrastan has played host to all 71 victims of Wednesday8217;s landslide and the wailing of distraught relatives haven8217;t ceased.

As the deceased arrive, the rows of pink and green silken cloth laced with golden only grows. Kneeling at each body, broken relatives place their foreheads on the cloth and weep, the rain-drenched soil soaking up their grief. As the influx swells, a steady stream of trucks arrives in tandem, carrying mud up the incline. More bodies arrive.. more lorries pull up8230; more grief.

Located barely a kilometre and a half from the runaway of the international airport, the kabrastan rests atop a hillock. Apart from the unkempt chawls that hug its periphery, an incomplete boundary wall is the only vestige of the impasse that surrounds the 9,384 sq mt of land that comprises the cemetery.

Recalls Mehmoob Khan, president of the Mohammad Majid Sunni Val Jamad trust that has been doing the rounds of various government offices since several years: 8220;We have been trying to secure control to administer the property as a cemetery since several years and have been trying to complete the formalities so that it can be thrown open to the public.8221;

The wait came to a grotesque end last week. With the nearest burial grounds at Jari Mari and Vikhroli water-logged when the landslide struck, the chief minister gave the trust special permission to bury the victims at the Gaibansha kabrastan. The last time a burial was conducted here was in 1972, when the bodies of 124 people were interred. Though less than 30 years have passed, no one remembers the tragedy.

Then in 1979, the trust stepped up its efforts to gain control over the property. But if life has since erupted all around its periphery, the only activity in the kabrastan itself has been the construciton of a boundary wall in 1994. The trust continued its pursuit with the authorities but to no avail.

But on Wednesday, Providence finally dispatched its reply, the only way it knew how. As the bodies rolled in on Saturday, a local resident cried over a megaphone: 8220;Bhagwan ne chaha so ho gaya. Ab smashaan khul to gaya What has happened is the will of god. But fortunately at least this cemetery has opened.8221;

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Not far from a handful of lambs grazing on this balding hillock, another local activist pleads: 8220;Apne kamai ka thoda paisa kabrastan ke liye de do Please donate a part of your earnings for the kabrastan.8221;

The government finally called off the rescue operation at Azad Nagar in Ghatkopar this evening, with the 71st body being extricated from the remains of the landslide on Saturday. Twenty-nine persons are still undergoing treatment in hospital while 22 others have been discharged over the last four days.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police, Manoj Lohia, some police personnel continue to be stationed at the site of Wednesday8217;s landslide though not a single body was pulled out today. He says affected residents are still thronging the relief camps nearby.