India, April 22 -- In a city where space is the ultimate luxury, not even the dead are safe. The living are now hoping the departed might give up prime real estate - their burial grounds and crematoria - to accommodate the needs of a rapidly expanding city.

Stepping in to protect the final resting place of the deceased is the state urban development department (UDD), which has instructed civic bodies across Maharashtra to refrain from changing the reservation of burial grounds and crematoria. It has also instructed them not to regularise encroachments on these plots.

Pointing to the paucity of burial grounds and crematoria, the circular was issued to all municipal commissioners and chief officers of civic bodies in the state last week. ...