Gargi Roy places a bunch of flowers on a white marble grave, lights a candle and stands in silence with her head bowed for what seems an eternity. She has come to visit Ghuncho, the Spitz who had been her friend and family member until a fatal accident four years ago.

Gargi goes to Ghuncho's grave at least twice every month. It's her way of keeping alive the unspoken relationship that is unique to a pet and its owner.

She isn't the only one. Scores of others seek out the solitude of this sylvan 10-acre compound in Bakhrahat, around 25km southwest of the city centre, to give their pets a dignified resting place and deal with the loss.

Rows of gravestones, most of them bearing personalised messages alongside photographs of those buried there, speak of the pain of losing a loved pet.

"No matter where you are/No matter where you will be/You are always there in our hearts/And forever will be," goes one epitaph. "If tears could build a stairway and memories were a lane, we would walk all the way to Heaven to bring you Home again," says another.

For Gargi, 32, Ghuncho's death would have been harder to accept had she not found a place to give him a proper burial. "I couldn't imagine dumping him anywhere. He was a family member and I was searching for a resting place for him when my father's friend suggested this one," the Behala resident recalled.

Many people are known to dump dead pets in the Hooghly in the absence of a pet cemetery within the city. Some bury them in the nearest vacant plot, although they know that the grave might be trod on or dug up any day.

The burial ground at Bakhrahat, 8km from the Thakurpukur crossing on Diamond Harbour Road, belongs to the Nikhil Banga Kalyan Samiti, an NGO founded by Tarun Guha in 1964 as a shelter for destitute children and the elderly. Only the home for children has survived.

In 1998, Guha turned a part of the sprawling compound into a burial ground for pets at the request of friends and acquaintances. The objective was to give pets the dignity they deserve in death and also ensure that people didn't pollute the environment by dumping or burying an animal wherever they chose to.

Nikhil Banga Kalyan Samiti now runs a shelter for injured strays too.

Basabi Chatterjee, who is in charge of the centre, said she and her team often find pets discarded by their owners outside the gate. "Most of the pets left outside our gate are old and ailing. We also receive calls from owners who want to leave their pets in our care because they either can't look after them or no longer want to keep them. We have also had callers telling us that they want to give away pet dogs because they bark so much that it disturbs their sleep."

The burial ground is, of course, what sets Nikhil Banga Kalyan Samiti's initiative apart. The idea of a grave for a favourite pet is at once cathartic for many pet owners struggling to reconcile themselves to their loss.

Pets are buried amidst rows of plants and flowerbeds across the 10-acre plot. Some of the gravestones have toys, plates or bowls that belonged to the pets that lie underneath. A few have netted curtains to provide shade from the scorching summer sun.

Since each gravestone has a personal touch, Basabi's team makes sure it is retained. "Why is a cement bag kept on this stone? Remove it immediately," she was heard directing a worker when Metro visited Bakhrahat recently.

"We need to be sensitive to the feelings of those who have buried their pets here," Basabi would say later.

The NGO charges a token amount of Rs 1,000 from anyone wanting a resting place for a pet. Donations are solicited too, although this is voluntary, according to an office-bearer.

The options available to pet owners include a grave, for which the organisation "welcomes donations". The gravestone has to be built at the owner's cost.

"If someone chooses only a spot to bury a pet, we clear the space for another animal after taking out the skeletal remains of the previous one," said a source associated with the NGO.

Like Gargi, who can't get over Ghuncho, people keep visiting the Bakhrahat burial ground to connect with their memories of a dear pet. Not all of them are Calcuttans. A businessman who now lives in Haryana recently flew down just to spend the day by his pet dog's grave on his birthday.

"There are many who sit here for hours. We give them the privacy they seek because most of them can't stop crying," Basabi said.

The NGO wants to do more but funding is apparently a problem. The burial ground doesn't have a boundary wall on one side. Theft has been reported on several occasions.

The concrete pathways that used to be muddy during the monsoon have been built with donations. "As a mark of gratitude, we name the pathways after pets whose owners donate money," Basabi said.

The pathway from the main entrance is Sandy Sarani. Inside, there is one named Mischief Sarani and another called Hero Sarani.

Each name tells the story of a pet alive in memories.

Have you been haunted by guilt at not being able to give a pet a proper burial? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com