Ahmedabad’s dog crematorium has conducted 600 funerals in nine months, prompting the municipal corporation to plan two additional facilities as pet owners from across Gujarat and neighbouring states travel to the city for a formal final farewell.
The crematorium in Behrampura was established by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in January and is described in the report as the first facility of its kind in Gujarat. Of the 600 cremations recorded, 547 involved pet dogs and cats, while 53 involved stray dogs.
Demand has led to waiting periods and appointment-based scheduling. The report said the facility sometimes receives calls for five to seven cremations in a single day. Each cremation takes about three hours, making it difficult to accommodate families without advance planning.
The facility is being used by pet owners from Rajkot, Surat, Bhavnagar and Mehsana, as well as other parts of Gujarat. Families from Jaipur and Udaipur have also travelled for between eight and 10 hours to bring their dogs for cremation, according to the report.
The cremation process includes bathing the animal, applying ghee, placing flowers and performing other farewell rituals. After cremation, the ashes are collected in an urn, covered with red cloth and labelled with the animal’s name. Families may later take the urn to places including Haridwar, Chanod or their hometowns for immersion.
The report cited an example of a Thaltej resident who travelled to Haridwar with a dog’s ashes. Another pet owner carried an urn to Kolkata, while some families have chosen Chanod for immersion. These practices show how the municipal facility is being used not only for disposal but also for ceremonies modelled on human funeral customs.
To address the waiting period, the civic body’s Cat Nuisance Control Department is planning two more dog crematoriums at a combined cost of Rs 60 lakh. One is proposed in Vastral and the other near the Ring Road in the western part of the city.
Naresh Rajput, head of the Cat Nuisance Control Department, said the existing crematorium was built at a cost of around Rs 30 lakh and includes the required arrangements. The report did not specify a construction or completion timeline for the two proposed facilities. The next step is the municipal corporation’s planned expansion of cremation capacity at the two identified locations.
