Health concerns rise as Indian morgue operates without cold storage
At a local government morgue in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh, bodies lie in and around the facility, wrapped in white clothing and exposed to the rising temperatures.
The post-mortem house in Noida Sector 94, near the Greater Noida Expressway was established over 5 years ago with a deep freezer and a cold room which only worked for 2 years.
Employees of the facility said that a freezer donation from a district official to salvage the situation also stopped working six months later.
The two-room morgue has since been operating without a cold room or freezer, raising significant health concerns and public outcry.
The situation has worsened amidst rising temperatures within the region since April.
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“In this summer heat, bodies decompose early and start smelling. We are working in this condition every day,” a staff was quoted as saying.
The facility has been operated by three employees since the death of a colleague. These employees are required to conduct a post-mortem on the bodies that come in and store them.
Many of these corpses are from the adjoining district hospital and are unidentified.
“There were six bodies here yesterday. The day before, we had nine bodies. Today, there are eight,” he says. “For the last three years, we have been in these circumstances. We take precautions… we wear gloves before we shift these bodies but we cannot do anything more than that. It is very difficult to work because of this stench. It is unbearable."
“Many are unidentified. As per the law, we have to store them for 72 hours before we can perform their last rites,” another employee said.
The bodies which are identified are usually moved from the facility after post-mortem and the others are incinerated metres away from the morgue.
Employees at this morgue are exposed to serious health threats from these conditions as they wait for the health department to act.
Meanwhile, authorities say they have launched investigations into the matter.
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According to District Magistrate of Gautam Buddha Nagar, Manish Kumar Vermah, the Chief Medical Officer has been directed to look into the issue.
“Nobody informed me about this before. We will find the people responsible for this and take all the necessary action,” he told Indian Express.
