Why not a “green burial?”

Disposal of the dead is, with growing populations, becoming a worldwide problem. Parsis in India have by the disappearance of the vultures been deprived of their time-honored method of disposal. The alternate method of solar panels for quick disposal has not proved quite satisfactory and, during the monsoon, is practically useless. Other countries too have problems, like lack of space for cemeteries to bury the dead.

Wooden funeral pyres are becoming prohibitively expensive, and crematoria are charged with further polluting the atmosphere. World problems call for world solutions. Man’s proverbial ingenuity — in this case a woman’s — has experimented, invented and patented a sensible and practical method, an ecological funeral also known as promession for allowing the body of the deceased to decompose in an environmentally friendly way. This method was patented in 1999 by the Swedish Suzanne Wiigh-Masak and was brought to my notice by another lady, Mehroo Billimoria, wife of Beji of the well known construction firm B. E. Billimoria and Company, who has been pursuing this idea with crusading zeal.

Fiona MacGregor, the famous biologist, describes the three steps that characterize this novel method. The body, wrapped in a sheet, is first frozen to -18 degrees Centigrade. It is then lowered into liquid nitrogen at -196 degrees Centigrade, which makes the body extremely brittle. A vibrating pad is used to reduce the remains to powder and a magnetic field removes traces of mercury and other metal residues from teeth fillings and hip replacements. This done, the remains are put into a biodegradable box made from vegetable matter and buried in a shallow grave where they will be absorbed into the earth in 12 months. The entire freezing and vibration process takes about two hours. In the case of the Parsi community, the remains can be directly put into the dakhma to be absorbed by the earth.

Professor (Emeritus) Kenyan Mason, an expert in forensic medicine and pathology, endorses the method because it does not interfere with public health and safety. He adds: "Sooner or later we are going to have to stop burying people because all the space will be taken up. It seems to me that it is just as proper to have a casket containing ashes or powder as a body, so ethically it seems quite all right.” Also, it does not defile the five elements sacred to the Zoroastrian faith.

This "green burial” idea seems to have won almost universal approval from the Church of Scotland, the Catholics, Protestants and the Government of the United Kingdom. Billimoria has discussed this with several leading Parsi personalities, including priests, and they are seriously considering recommending it to the community at large. She also took the initiative of speaking to its inventor, Wiigh-Masak.

Billimoria found that the initial cost of installing this system would be about five crore rupees, with monthly maintenance costs varying from country to country. If this method is adopted by Parsis, it will bring about drastic changes not only in the method of disposing of the dead, but even in the mindsets of the living. A public demonstration is to be held in Sweden in December 2007 with invitees from all over the world, including India. Says Wiigh-Masak: "This is an ethical way of giving back to nature, and of understanding that death is a possibility for new life.”

As the old adage puts it, dust we are and to dust we must return. From this point of view, the idea is not just timely, it is timeless.

B. K. KARANJIA