1/n: While our colleagues have been reporting about families struggling and overwhelmed crematoria, forcing staff to work multiple shifts, I'd been trying to get numbers to see what this means. Here: For every Covid-19 death reported in B'luru, at least 2 bodies are cremated.
2/n: Long queues of ambulances and hearses outside crematoria, prima facie, appeared as a logistics issue but data from 12 dedicated crematoria collated between Mar 1&Apr 26 shows: For every Covid-19 death reported in Bengaluru, at least 2 bodies are being cremated.
3/n: Sample this: Crematoria staff from these places have cremated 3,104 bodies under Covid protocol in 57 days, while official number of deaths was only 1,422. The govt is yet to report deaths of 1,682 patients, which makes the gap in reporting and cremations more than double.
4/n: Even if around 10%-12% (310-465) of these are bodies cremated using Covid protocols but of patients whose results were awaited, the difference, after discounting these numbers, is still around double the reported numbers.
5/n: Also, these (test result-pending) bodies would be offset by the numbers from some of the smaller facilities under BBMP, the Christian and Muslim burial grounds among others, data for which are not immediately available.
6/n: A Suresh, secretary, Ambedkar DSS, which represents the crematoria staff says they pointed to the problem in late March but nothing was done. Of the 12 facilities that I procured data from, Sumanahalli has handled the most bodies, 571, followed by Kengeri (502).
7/n: BBMP chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta said: “I don’t have the exact difference, but we know that there’s a gap. But given how sensitive the issue is, we are not turning away bodies that come from neighbouring districts, which could be adding to numbers at crematoria.”
8/n: But analysis of deaths from three neighbouring districts — Kolar (28), Chikkaballapur (14) and Bengaluru Rural (52) — shows that only 94 deaths were added in the said 57 days. Which means that even after adding these numbers, the under-reporting is still apparent.
9/n: BBMP JC, Sarfaraz Khan, said: “I’ve checked with the registrar in-charge of deaths and the gap in cremations and deaths appear to be correct..."
10/n: "...However, they are also taking in bodies from other districts and those of ILI/SARI cases. That is, their Covid report is negative, but CT scans are showing Covid-like symptoms. These are not included in the official database. The difference could be becasue of that.”
12/n: Dr HM Prasanna, president, PHANA, had told me last week: “Nearly 30% of all RT-PCR tests are showing negative in the past few weeks, but CT scans show Covid-like deterioration in the lungs. The govt is not allowing us to admit such patients under the Covid quota.”
n/n: Suresh said that the massive increase in deaths has staff working round the clock even as additional manpower is being added on an ad-hoc basis.
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Today, @isro said it accomplished another significant milestone on March 21, when the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module-3 (#POEM3) successfully re-entered Earth’s atmosphere in a controlled manner, leaving minimal orbital debris. 1/n
Pic: Isro
#POEM3 was part of the #PSLVC58 mission that launched #XPoSat on Jan 1, 2024. After deploying satellites into their intended orbits, the spent rocket stage was transformed into a stabilised platform for conducting experiments. 2/n
“The last stage of PSLV or POEM was deorbited from 650km to 350 km, which facilitated its early reentry, and was passivated to remove residual propellants to minimise any accidental break-up risks,” Isro said. 3/n
In what astronomers are calling “unexpected” but “beautiful surprise”, @IIABengaluru Indian Astronomical Observatory (#IAO) in #Hanle & Merak, Ladakh, captured stunning images of an intense red-coloured aurora on Nov 5.
Pics: IIA
The IAO, operated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, is renowned for its astronomical research and observations. 2/n
Auroras, typically observed at high latitudes like Scandinavia, are a breathtaking curtain of light caused by the interaction between the Earth’s magnetosphere and incoming solar wind carrying charged particles and magnetic fields. 3/n
As @isro burns the midnight oil on Earth, waiting to hear again from #Vikram & #Pragyan, principal investigators of instruments on the two have begun sifting through data for new findings. 1/n
Among many things the global scientific community is expected to learn from Vikram and Pragyan’s work before they went to sleep is new knowledge about the lunar soil, which will be useful for future missions, including ambitious projects aiming to send humans back to #Moon. 2/n
“It would have been easy if there was a way we could know if they would wake up, but we have to wait and see how systems behave after Sunrise,” Isro chairman S Somanath said. 3/n
On a day India’s solar sat began its 1.5 mn-km journey, its lunar mission achieved all its objectives, paving the way for @isro to put #Vikram & #Pragyan to sleep on Sunday. Read on for exclusive details from project director P Veeramuthuvel. 1/n
Sunday, which is the 12th day since India achieved the historic soft-landing on the lunar surface, will see both Vikram and Pragyan retire for the night, Chandrayaan-3 project director P Veeramuthuvel told me. 2/n
Isro late on Saturday said: “The rover completed its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode. #APXS & #LIBS payloads are turned off. Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander.” 3/n
While several of its teams continue to romance #Moon, Isro is in the last leg of prep for a "Surya Namaskara". #AdityaL1 slated to launch just hrs from now. Read on to know exclusive details on why launch profile is for 63 mins, about #AOP & more… 1/n
#AdityaL1 will be launched in the 59th flight of #PSLV, after several yrs of devp. PSLV-C57, in XL configuration, will place #AdityaL1 in a highly eccentric Earth-bound orbit, an elliptical orbit whose Perigee is expected to be around 235km & Apogee more than 19,000km. 2/n
From there, #AdityaL1 will perform multiple orbital manoeuvres using LAM (liquid apogee motors) to reach the Lagrange Point-1 or #L1 about 1.5-million-km away. That is 1/100th of the distance between Earth and Sun. 3/n
In the “first-ever in-situ” measurements in the lunar polar region, the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope — #LIBS — onboard #Pragyan has “unambiguously confirmed the presence of Sulphur (S) in the lunar surface near the south pole”. 1/n
“LIBS is a scientific technique that analyses the composition of materials by exposing them to intense laser pulses. High-energy laser pulse is focused onto the surface of a material (rock or soil). The laser pulse generates an extremely hot and localised plasma,” Isro said. 2/n
The collected plasma light is spectrally resolved & detected by detectors such as charge coupled devices. “Since each element emits a characteristic set of wavelengths of light when it's in a plasma state, the elemental composition of the material is determined,” Isro added. 3/n