Varanasi, India
The demand for Hindu funeral pyres is rapidly deforesting India, environmental groups say. Burning a single body in the traditional Hindu manner requires 600 to 1,000 pounds of wood. With more than 8 million Hindu deaths a year, India burns 50 million trees annually, producing 500,000 tons of ash and 8 million tons of carbon dioxide. “If we don’t come up with a solution for dealing with the dead, we are going to affect the survival of the living,” said Anshul Garg, director of a New Delhi environmental group. The government offers environmentally friendly gas-powered cremations, but only the poorest are sent off that way, as most observant Hindus insist on wood. Garg’s group, Mokshda, has invented an eco-friendly wood-burning crematorium that uses just over 200 pounds of wood per body, but it has yet to catch on.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Gavin Newsom mulls California redistricting to counter Texas gerrymanderingTALKING POINTS A controversial plan has become a major flashpoint among Democrats struggling for traction in the Trump era
-
6 perfect gifts for travel loversThe Week Recommends The best trip is the one that lives on and on
-
How can you get the maximum Social Security retirement benefit?the explainer These steps can help boost the Social Security amount you receive
