Jagdeesh Bhil’s wife, Nozibai had died on early Friday morning, following which he had gone to the Ratnagarh village panchayat to arrange logs for cremation. (Reuters)

A tribal from the Neemuch district’s Ratnagarh village was forced to gather plastic bags, waste paper, and tyres to cremate the body of his dead wife following being turned down by the crematorium due to lack of funds. Jagdeesh Bhil spent 3 hours collecting the garbage for the funeral pyre after being numbed down by his wife’s death and the apathy of the Panchayat. It was reported that some people even asked him to throw his wife’s dead body in the river after he was seen collecting garbage.

This the second incident of apathy after reports of another tribal man from Odisha carrying his dead wife’s body for 10 km ith his daughter surfaced. The hospital had denied ambulance services to the man following the death of his wife. Bhil’s wife Nozibai had died on early Friday morning, following which he had gone to the Ratnagarh village panchayat to arrange logs for cremation. But the village heads had denied it citing lack of money to get the necessary services.

Bhil said that the corporator Nathulal Bhil was not present in the region. Jagdeesh and his family were reported ton have roamed around in the village begging people for help. Though many suggested ways to dispose of the body, nobody actually tried and come out for help. Jagdeesh meanwhile, was completely broken at the irony that is wife used to collect wood from the forest for a living but none was available for her funeral pyre. The family had then gone on to dig a grave and bury a body but a social worker helped them to collect wooden blocks among other items for cremation. Neemuch district collector Rajneesh Shrivastava later condemned the incident and asked the SDM to provide wood to the family but were late in their action.