Ever since the induction of the two WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis) trustees into the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) there has been a pursuit of plans to spend crores of rupees on building a vulture aviary at the BPP owned Doongerwadi in Bombay — against the sane advice of over 14 Parsi doctors and the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) staff itself.
Several years back during my tenure as chief executive officer of the BPP (1998-2007) I had suggested to the board that the operational dakhmas should be thrown open to the Parsis (after verifying that everyone was a genuine Parsi, and not an impersonator), for three to four consecutive Sundays so that community members could judge for themselves whether they wished to consign their near and dear ones to rot there. The trustees disagreed. This would be the best way for the community to decide on the issue of disposal of the dead, and it has the right to decide.
I used to inspect the operational dakhmas every six weeks and was sickened no end! Dhun Baria’s expose was very true.
The high priests’ mandate that priests should not perform the first four days’ after death prayers if the survivors of the deceased choose not to consign a corpse to the dakhma (where one exists) is arbitrary in the extreme. It is not rooted in the scriptures and must be proscribed forthwith. B. T. DASTUR