A proposal to build a new Catholic cemetery has been opposed by villagers in southern India who say it will pollute their drinking water sources.

St. Antony’s Forane Syro-Malabar Church plans to locate the cemetery on a 37,000-square-meter plot it bought recently in Thamarassery diocese, Kerala state. It also intends to build a school, hostel, home for the elderly and a youth training center on the site.

People from Maloorkunnu village in Kozhikode district have organized protest marches and distributed leaflets and posters, stating that their wells and a river in the village would be polluted.

“We will not allow this cemetery at any cost,” said one protester.

Another opponent, who lives near the site, pointed out an economic objection. “Locally, the value of land near cemeteries does not appreciate. The proposal has already diminished the price of land here,” he said.

But St. Antony’s priest Father Jose Manimalatharappil described the protests as “baseless, painful and a reaction based on ignorance.”

“The cemetery will be well built with extra care against pollution and will have concrete vaults to ensure that nothing gets out of it,” he said. “The parish already has government permission to build the cemetery and people will withdraw the protest when they understand the facts.”

Vinod Kuthukalunmkal, a parish trustee, added that he expected the protests to ease off, once work starts on the school and the other planned facilities.

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IB10475.1611