Cost of death: How and why funeral rates have gone up across this Covid-wracked country SECTIONS Share Synopsis The past few weeks have been harrowing for the 49-year-old funeral arranger at Delhi’s Sarai Kale Khan cremation ground. There were days when his team cremated 75-80 bodies, all Covid victims. Burials are cheaper as they don’t require wood. Also, most burials are done under the auspices of a mosque or a church, with little scope for extortion by middlemen. Giriraj Solanki doesn’t know if it is the smoke rising from the pyres or the sight of numerous bodies placed on them that makes his eyes well up every now and then.