Tower of Silence to be fenced

Tags: Science and Technology

 The Supreme Court has approved the Parsi(Zoroastrian ) community agreement with the Government of India to fence their Tower of Silence in order to follow Covid protocol regarding the disposal of dead bodies. The dead bodies of the community will be now fenced with a metallic net in their tower of silence .

• In  the Parsi Dokhamanshini tradition, the dead body is kept on the roof of a structure referred to as the tower of silence, to be eaten by vultures, and the remains are left to decompose under the sun.

• The Parsi community approached the court after the Government of India issued a guideline regarding disposal of dead bodies during covid pandemic. The bodies were to be fully covered and were to be either buried or burnt as coronavirus was found to be active on dead bodies for nine days .

• The Parsi community argued that it was against their custom of Dokhamanshini.

 Now in a compromise the community and the government have agreed to fence the dead body with metallic mesh in the tower of silence , so that it is not eaten by vultures and the spread of coronavirus can be stopped . 

According to the 2011 census the total population of Parsis in India was 57,624.