After Kafeel Ahmed’s mother died a year ago, the family buried her in Govandi’s Rafi Nagar Kabristan, a minute’s walk away. When Kafeel died of a heart attack on Tuesday, his final resting place couldn’t be near his mother, as the cemetery had been shut a month ago. “There’s no chance he can be buried here,” said his brother, “We’ll have to take him to the Cheetah Camp cemetery, but even there, we don’t know if there’ll be space.” This burial site is about 7 km from their home.

In June, some graves in the Rafi Nagar burial ground were excavated to make room for new bodies. Unfortunately, the process revealed that even after 18 months, bodies had only partially decomposed. As a result, the graveyard was temporarily closed until earlier this month when BMC officials re-inspected the graves, confirming that decomposition was still ongoing, leading to its continued closure.