Constraint of space has hit both those who are alive and the dead. With restricted area available for burying dead animals, the Vapi Municipality located at Valsad district, Gujarat has decided to set up a gas-based cremation home for them.

This is the first-of-its-kind cremation home in the State and will cost Rs.74 lakhs.

Sharing details about the home, Suresh Patel, Vapi Nagar Palika Health Department Chairman said that it is near the cremation home for human beings at Chandor. There will be provision for two gas-based chambers. One will be used for small animals like cats, dogs, pigs, and goats while the other will be for bigger animals like cows and buffaloes.

He added that VNP had asked Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited to supply gas and they have agreed to a free supply. The Corporation did the same for cremation homes for humans.

At present the dead animals are buried at the solid waste disposal site of VNP in the Chandor area. As per Shailesh Patel, the Chief Sanitary Inspector of VNP, on an average 10 cattle are buried in a month there. With each passing day, however, the space crunch is becoming an obstacle for burying the dead animals. Whenever the ground is dug for fresh burial, remains are found making it difficult.

When this point was raised with VNP and Kashmira Shah, Palika’s Chairperson, it was suggested that a new cremation home for animals should be built and the cost of this project was worked out.

Shah told the media that with funds provided by the Central and State Governments, a new cremation home for animals will be set up. For this a proposal was passed at the General Board meeting of VNP. Tender was issued and the contract has been awarded to a Pune-based agency.

The construction has started and it is expected to finish in the next couple of months.