In Puri, More Than Covid, Ban From ‘Gateway To Heaven' Scares Faithful

Durga Prasad Das Mohapatra goes to the Jagannath Temple in Puri to offer prayers.

- Yudhajit Shankar Das

At 8 am every day, 60-year-old Durga Prasad Das Mohapatra goes to the Jagannath Temple in Puri to offer prayers. This has been his routine for the last 45 years. Mohapatra is the daitapati nijog or the general secretary of the group of 185 servitors who are engaged in the Rath Yatra in Puri every year. If the 12th century temple is at the centre of Mohapatra’s existence, his life’s desire is to be cremated at Swargadwar — the crematorium in Puri that many Hindus believe to be ‘the gateway to heaven’. Mohapatra is among the countless who harbour this wish.

But now, coronavirus has come in the way of faith. The local administration has prohibited cremation of Covid-19 victims at Swargadwar. And this ban has given rise to an extraordinary situation. The stigma attached with the disease and the fear of spending lonely days in a hospital, added to the apprehension of not getting a cremation at Swargadwar is said to be making people — especially the elderly — risk their lives. People are avoiding getting tested and not approaching doctors when symptoms of Covid show up, say residents of this seaside town in Odisha.