The densely populated capital can hardly make any room for eternal rest for its dwellers, especially Muslims, as some 100 bodies are being buried daily in place of the previous ones.
The capacity of the city’s five major burial grounds, maintained by Dhaka City Corporation, to accommodate some 1.6 crore bodies has been heavily outnumbered in the couple of years.
Sultan Mahmud, a businessman, lives in Saudi Arab. His father died in January 2008 and was buried at Azimpur graveyard. He came to Dhaka one year after his father’s death and visited the graveyard to pay his respects.
Surprisingly, he could not identify his father’s last resting place, even after hectic one and a half-hour search.
“The physical geography of the area, where my father was buried, was changed within one year,” he said.
Mizanur Rahman, the mohrar of Azimpur graveyard, told the daily sun, “We don’t keep a particular grave for more than two years, as there is a serious space shortage here. Even, sometimes we have to lay down a body in place of another one within one year.”
“People come and look for the graves of their beloved ones but go back in sad mood regularly, because they cannot find the graves, which are already reused.”
The truth is the authorities give permission to dig another grave on the same place within a certain period, many family members said.
Rashedul Karim Chowdhury, a resident of Uttara, said, “It’s very tragic for those who cannot trace the grave of their near ones after nine to 10 months.”
He called on the government to take steps to address this emotional issue.
The Azimpur graveyard, established in 1850, is the oldest burial ground, which covers 34 acres of land.
The Mirpur graveyard is the largest burial ground on 65 acres. It has several exclusive zones -- Shaheed, freedom fighters, intellectuals and common.
Jurain graveyard is on 10.1 acres, Banani on 4.5 acres and Uttara on 0.5 acres. Bangladesh Army maintains its own graveyard, which is north of the Banani Municipal graveyard.
Eleven other small and medium graveyards are located in various places in the city with a total land area of approximately 4 acres of land. But 95 percent space is occupied by private and permanent graves, sources said.
On an average, 25 to 30 burials take place at the Azimpur graveyard a day while some nine to 12 bodies are buried at Jurain and two to three are laid to rest at Banani.
Every day, the burial of some five to six bodies takes place at Mirpur every day and one is laid to rest at Uttara graveyard, a DCC official said.
According to a DCC statistics, the capacity of Azimpur graveyard is 30,000 graves, 1,200 for Uttara, 11,000 for Banani, 32,000 for Mirpur and 7,000 for Jurain.
The space for a permanent grave at Uttara was sold for Tk 100,000, at Banani for Tk 60,000, at Azimpur for Tk 35,000 and Tk 25,000 at Mirpur and Jurain graveyard for five years. The charge will be double for 10 years, said Khandker Millatul Islam, head of DCC’s social welfare department.
“The city corporation is not selling any space, as the government in January 2009 had declared that no one will be able to buy a permanent space in any graveyard under the DCC’s jurisdiction.”
Md Lutfor Rahman Chowdhury, deputy social welfare and cultural officer of DCC, said the soil of a graveyard is sifted in every two years. The bones retrieved are buried in a specific place and the soil is replaced. This gives space for new graves.
“As per the Islamic rules, a burial space should not be bought permanently. Moreover, the space in Dhaka is decreasing gradually. So, it will be difficult for us to accommodate more bodies in future.”
To cope with the increasing pressure, DCC has drawn a scheme for more burial grounds in the city. It has finalised a plan to set up four new graveyards at Rayerbazar, Birulia, Aftab Nagar and Matuail, DCC sources said.
Sources in the DCC estate department said the land acquisition process for new graveyards was going on at Rayerbazar and Aftab Nagar in Badda. The remaining two will be started soon.
Dr Ishrat Islam, assistant professor of Urban and Regional Planning department at Buet, said the government as well as private property developers should take an initiative in this connection.
“A concrete plan should be approved by the authorities concerned where graveyards to be designed compared to the city’s total population,” she said.
