Hybrid funeral: Recyclable coffin is answer

With more churches in Mumbai promoting shroud burials and some outrightly discouraging coffins, a funeral undertaker in Thane is offering a hybrid funeral of sorts - a shroud burial using a lavish coffin that is later reused.

- Manoi Ramakrishnan

The funeral method uses a mechanical system that lowers a shroud-clad body into the grave in a coffin. Mechanical levers open the bottom of the coffin, leaving the body in the grave. The coffin is pulled up, ready to receive another body.

The experiment was tried a week ago at a Bhandup church. The family of the 86-year-old man who was interred is reported to have said that they found the method 'meaningful - as if their loved one had gone in a coffin'.