Social worker Mohammad Khalid displays a poster at Muktidham in Hazaribagh on Monday. (Vishvendu Jaipuriar)

Firewood for cremation will now be given free of cost at Muktidham crematorium, Kheergaon in Hazaribagh, thanks to an anonymous donor.

The donor, who doesn’t want to be identified, has deposited an amount with the forest department, which has also been kept under wraps. Now, anyone who approaches Baba Bhutnath Mandali, the outfit that procures wood from forest department godown at Charhi, 15km from Hazaribagh, will get cremation firewood completely free of cost.

Mohammad Khalid, of NGO Murda Kalyan Samiti, a social worker known for performing last rites of unclaimed bodies, said the donor asked him to put up signboards in this regard. “Three quintals of biofuel are required to cremate a body and each costs Rs 700. But from now on, no one will have to spend a paisa on firewood at Muktidham,” he said.

Even a month earlier, wood was a precious commodity at the crematorium. The forest department hiked the price of wood per quintal to Rs 600 for selling the Mandali, which in turn sold it to the bereaved at the crematorium at Rs 450, running a loss of Rs 150 per quintal. As a result, the Mandali stopped buying wood. In protest of this anomaly, CPM district secretary Ganesh Kumar Singh on May 23 posed as a corpse. Finally, the forest department fixed Rs 700 as the new price.

But all that is now in the past. “The crematorium received a large consignment of wood on Friday, June 21, thanks to the benefactor. This is a good start,” Khalid said. Mandali members are also informing kin of the bereaved about the free firewood facility.

Khalid said he had also met local officials and donors on kerosene donation. Around 100l of kerosene is needed per month at the crematorium. “We want to provide free kerosene too. Some donors in Hazaribagh are ready to pay for kerosene,” he said.