After the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) health department’s ‘clean chit’ to Doongerwadi was challenged by some Parsis, the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) has decided to appoint Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to carry out a health and environmental assessment of the 55-acre grounds, reported The Times of India of January 18, 2007.
"We are planning to sanction two lakh rupees for this study,” revealed BPP chairman Minoo Shroff. The BPP has been under fire from some sections of the community because of the health hazards posed by Doongerwadi where the system of dakhmenashini is not functioning as it should. Sarosh Manekshaw, a US-based environmental engineer made a presentation to the BPP on how to go about the study in a scientific way and suggested that the job be carried out by NEERI, the reports adds.
Doongerwadi: beset by troubling questions
Speculation continues to mount as to the cause of the unexplained fire at the Bisney dakh-ma which occured on February 23, 2007. Angry union leaders held a meeting with Shroff and other BPP trustees over the allegations that the Doongerwadi staff had lit the fire.
It is alleged that in order to lessen the tedious task of clearing the cadavers and burying them in a pit beside the dakhma, one or more of the pallbearers may have set the leaves and shrouds that clutter the bhandar (central pit of the dakhma) ablaze.
In the meanwhile the Banaji dakhma is believed to be filled to capacity with corpses and the task of burying the bodies has been aggravated by the fact that the earth adjacent to the dakhma is underlaid with rock and stones.
The corpses will therefore have to be carried some distance away for burial. How to do this without offending the Parsi public that frequents Doongerwadi is a troubling question.