Notwithstanding the shrinking space for the housing of a burgeoning population, civic body of the neighbouring Pimpri Chinchwad industrial township has found a plot of land for expanding a 'pet cemetery' where the grieving owners can build a tomb in memory of their loved pets.
About 3,000 ceremonious burials of dogs and cats have taken place on the 20,000 sq ft plot since the cemetery was set up six years back, described as the first of its kind started by a civic body in the country.
"The response to the idea, conceived to bestow dignity on the dead pet, treated by the household as a family member, has been so immense that we are now considering a proposal to further expand the cemetery by another 30,000 sq ft," said Satish Gore, veterinary chief of Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), who gave shape to the project.
The burial charges are minimal, Rs 50 for a registered pet and Rs 100 for the unregistered, and the municipal corporation, one of the biggest revenue earners in the country, has also plans to start an electric crematorium for the four-legged pets.
A visit to the spacious cemetery which nestles among greenery of trees, presents a spectacle of moving epithets engraved on tombstones raised at the graves of the departed pets fondly named from the familiar "Tommy" to the high profile "Hrithik".
There is also a "Tyson" laid to rest with the lines "God will link the broken chain as one by one we meet again... In our hearts, you will always stay loved and remembered every day.
