Muslim boy designs green crematorium for Hindus

VADODARA/ANAND: A youth from minority community has designed an eco-friendly, bio-gas furnace for a Hindu crematorium in Borsad town of Anand. Firdos Vahora, who has just completed graduation in automobile engineering, has designed a bio-gas furnace that saves wood. The furnace has been installed at a crematorium in Borsad. This bio-gas furnace was first used recently to cremate a destitute elderly woman without any charges.

Vahora had started working on this project before eight months on suggestion of a Borsad-based tobacco merchant Dharmendra Bhavsar who wanted him to design an eco-friendly and cheaper alternative for cremation where wood is used in huge quantity.

After Vahora succeeded in designing this eco-friendly furnace that runs on bio-gas, the duo approached the trustees of Shantidham Shamshan in Borsad who allowed the project to be executed in the crematorium.

“If this furnace is used, around 200 kilograms of wood used for a single cremation is saved,” says Vahora, adding that he has designed cylinders which can store bio-gas which is later supplied to the furnace with high pressure.

“We have dug a well where cow and buffalo dung is stored to generate bio-gas. The bio-gas generated from this well is supplied to cylinders through a pipeline. We have installed two gas cylinders of 11 kilogram each. It is due to the pumps attached to the cylinders that 130 degree pressure is generated to supply bio-gas to the furnace which has been prepared from stainless steel,” says Vahora, adding that a dead body takes 20 minutes to turn to ashes in this furnace.

For each cremation, the furnace consumes nine kilogram of bio-gas. Bhavsar has also roped in members of the ‘Rabari’ community to get cow dung cakes for this project.

“If a cattle rearer sells cow dung cakes in open market he earns Rs 1,200 per trolley. But if he supplies his cow dung cakes to us, after filtration in the bio-gas plant, the remains get sold at Rs 5,000 per trolley. We provide services to all without taking any charge from them,” says Bhavsar.