The Supreme Court of India has permitted the practice of dakhmenashini for Parsi victims of Covid-19, albeit with a condition that their corpses be consigned to a separate dakhma which should be covered with netting to ensure that the birds do not carry the remains of the deceased outside the confines of the well.
The Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat has completed the arduous task of fixing a steel wire net on one of its dakhmas at Doongerwadi in Jashodanagar, Ahmedabad, earmarked for Parsis who have succumbed to Covid-19.
Top: volunteers fixing netting over dakhma;
above: Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat
trustees along with Bomi Mistry’s team
A diligent team of volunteers (mainly from Bombay) under the able guidance of Bomi Mistry and comprising of Cyrus Bacha, Nozar Sutaria, Khushroo Bharucha, Burzin Mandviwala, Sarosh Gandhi, Vaish Bhopti and Ardaviraf Karbhari was pressed into service to carry out this task. The team worked from dawn to dusk in the scorching heat for an entire week. Working in the open while standing on a 15 ft ladder must have certainly been extremely trying in sweltering conditions, but they accomplished the task well within the allotted time. This is an outstanding example of putting the community before self.
Brig Jahangir P. Anklesaria (retd), president and trustee of the Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat (APP), committee members Hoshang Karanjia and Sarosh Karkaria and all the nassessalars devoted themselves assiduously to the project.
A similar task had been carried out earlier in the Bombay and Surat dakhmas. The APP is beholden to Mistry’s entire team for their yeoman services.