Turtles, rabbits and even a deer have passed through this crematorium

Thane is about to get its second pet crematorium. The Kalwa facility, free like its predecessor, opens on August 15, with two more planned along Ghodbunder Road and in Kopri. Until then, the Thane Municipal Corporation’s pet crematorium in Majiwada remains the district’s only such facility. TOI meets one of its two operatorsThe faux diamond stud in his right ear catches the 6 pm light. Bluetooth earphones hang around his neck as Rahul Suradkar watches a woman walk silently down a corridor painted with paw prints and a playful pup.“I am here for the ashes… of the rabbit,” she says.“Have you brought…?”“The white dabba right there,” she replies before he can finish.That’s his cue.Suradkar opens the plastic box, disappears inside, and returns with a metal wok holding the rabbit’s cooled remains. He gently scoops the ashes into the container, snaps the lid shut and hands it back.Neither says another word.As he watches her leave, weighed down by grief, Suradkar recalls other owners who have broken down before him — some weeping uncontrollably, others calling priests to perform the last rites. “For some, they’re family,” says the khaki-clad operator.Opened in Majiwada last November by transport minister Pratap Sarnaik — whose own family had to travel to Mumbai to cremate their dog, Moti, because no such facility existed in Thane — the crematorium has already handled nearly 1,500 cremations.Families travel from as far as Ambernath and Kharegaon, says Suradkar, one of the two operators who run the gas-fired incinerator and return the ashes to owners.At 35, this animal-loving father of two, has cremated dogs, cats, rabbits, turtles and, once, a deer brought in by the forest department with all the necessary paperwork.His Rs 19,000-a-month job is not for the faint-hearted. Every day, wearing gloves, a mask and goggles, he lifts the bodies of animals into the furnace before later collecting their ashes for grieving families. Oddly, he says, the work is easier than his previous postings at four human crematoriums.“The process is the same. The machines there are just bigger.”His induction here lasted barely a day. “Once the other operator showed me how to operate the furnace, I knew the rest.”On the wall opposite his workstation is a quote from Sarnaik: “This is not just about infrastructure—it is about honouring the bond we share with our pets.”Suradkar’s shift runs from 3 pm to 11 pm, but grief doesn’t keep office hours. He once received a call at 2 am after someone close to a political heavyweight lost a pet. “My wife is used to it now,” he says.His caregiving doesn’t end when he leaves work. “My father is paralysed and bedridden. Between changing his diapers and my baby’s, this is my duty to the divine.”His cat, Chikoo, prowls the crematorium compound. He won’t take her home, fearing she could carry infections. Instead, his nine-year-old son visits the crematorium virtually through his dad’s video calls to see Chikoo. “He is proud of what I do,” says Suradkar. “I have told him I send dead animals to a better place for a living.”The service is free, though families often leave Rs 50 or Rs 100 as tips. Some return later with boxes of laddus. A civic official says the only recurring complaint has been Sunday timings. Earlier, the crematorium shut at 6 pm; it now responds to emergencies around the clock.Online, information about the facility remains sparse. A website still lists incorrect timings and omits an important requirement: owners must bring a photocopy of their Aadhaar card along with the pet’s licence. “Families who arrive without the documents have had to return to fetch them. I feel for them,” says Suradkar.NGO workers often thank Suradkar for doing what they call dangerous work. He smiles politely. What he hopes for instead is a raise “on par with permanent workers.” “They get Rs 50,000,” he says.Before another family arrives carrying a pet, Suradkar heads back to the furnace. Meanwhile, behind the human crematorium next door, Chikoo slips quietly into the shadows.

Vasai: Amid incessant rainfall in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region on Saturday, Kishor Lokhande (50) was swept away by floodwaters at Mangulipada-Bhoidapada in Vasai East, while six-year-old Aniket Waghela from Betegaon drowned when he was crossing a canal with his grandfather, a farm worker, and two siblings in Palghar. In Nalasopara East’s flooded Jeevan Nagar, an unidentified body was found.A total of 222 people stranded in flood-hit parts of Vasai-Virar were rescued by teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC) fire brigade across the city and the adjoining rural areas.The city recorded 163 mm of rainfall till 3 pm on Saturday, leading to severe waterlogging and flood-like conditions in several residential pockets.According to the VVMC, 19 people were rescued from Sakwar village and 12 from Sarja Mori. Rescue teams also evacuated five residents from Virat Nagar in Virar, 30 from Nirmal, 10 from Santosh Bhavan, two from Sativali, three from the Vasai railway station area, 41 from Madhuban and 100 from Rajavali, taking the total number of people rescued during the day to 222. Palghar district collector Indurani Jakhad and Mandvi senior police inspector Sanjay Hajare were present during the rescue operation.In Vasai East, 41 teaching and non-teaching staff stranded at Thakur Indrasandevi Public School (TIPS) and Junior College in the Madhuban area were rescued by the fire brigade. The civic body said residents of landslide-prone areas were shifted to relief shelters, while food packets were distributed to families whose homes were inundated.Civic bus services across Vasai-Virar on Saturday were suspended for over five hours. Several buses broke down, leaving hundreds of commuters to wade through flooded roads. Meanwhile, massive traffic snarls were seen on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway. Stretches between the Versova bridge and Virar Phata, including Sasupada, Maljipada, Chinchoti, Pelhar and Vasai Phata, saw severe waterlogging.Waterlogging was reported on the tracks between Vasai Road and Nalasopara stations, resulting in delays of 20 to 25 minutes.

Navi Mumbai: The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s (NMMC) Property Tax Department received an unprecedented response from citizens in its property tax collection campaign for the financial year 2026-27, collecting Rs 434.02 crore in the first quarter from April to June 2026, a record in the corporation’s history, said the civic officials. Technology-based administrative work played a crucial role behind the record recovery, said NMMC Commissioner Kailas Shinde. The civic body has estimated Rs 1,200 crore tax collection in its budget for the current fiscal . “The recovery process placed emphasis on transparency, citizen-oriented services, expansion of digital facilities and data-based decision-making. Initiatives implemented under his guidance strengthened taxpayers’ confidence, reflected in continuously increasing tax recovery for the last two years,” said Shinde.The civic body recovered Rs 23.67 crore from 15,250 property owners who did not pay property tax in the previous year or earlier. Of 1,23,323 property owners who paid in the second, third and fourth quarters of the previous year, 56,973 paid in the first quarter of this fiscal, contributing Rs 165.74 crore.This year more than Rs 434.02 crore was collected from 1,43,329 taxpayers, compared with Rs 372.42 crore from 98,478 taxpayers in the corresponding period of 2025-26. The increase in taxpayer participation boosted the corporation’s revenue growth, said city mayor Sujata Patil.Digital media played a major role in the record collection, with citizens using QR codes, UPI, net banking, debit and credit cards, and mobile banking, making payment easier, faster and more transparent, said NMMC.NMMC also sent ‘Personalised Payment Links’ through SMS and WhatsApp to enable citizens to pay from home within seconds. The corporation said the initiative received a spontaneous response, with 57,397 citizens, or 40.63% of total taxpayers, paying about Rs 58 crore through this medium.Property tax of Rs 434.02 crore was collected from 1,43,329 taxpayers out of 3,55,772 taxpayers. Of the total, 1,03,473 taxpayers paid Rs 280.71 crore online (72.2%), 27,023 taxpayers paid Rs 8.36 crore through offline methods (18.85%), and Rs 144.93 crore was collected from 12,833 taxpayers through bank transactions (9%). The highest collection of Rs 80 crore was from the Ghansoli division.By property type, collections comprised residential properties at 31.92%, industrial properties at 35.79%, commercial properties at 22.26%, and mixed and other assets at 10.03%.

The scamster had used the modus operandi of sending a malicious Apk file claiming it was meant for updating his MGL bill payment.

Navi Mumbai: A 47-year-old hotelier in Vashi prevented a loss of Rs 10.04 lakh after he immediately registered an online complaint on the National Cyber Crime Portal (NCCRP) when a cyber fraudster posing as an MGL officer fraudulently debited the amount from his wife’s bank account.The incident occurred on June 30. After the hotelier lodged a complaint on NCCRP, an FIR of cheating and criminal breach of trust under BNS sections along with the IT Act was registered on Friday at APMC police station against the scamster, who identified himself as Sanjay Joshi in a text message sent to the hotelier.Abasaheb Patil, senior inspector of APMC, informed that on June 30 at 3.23 pm, complainant hotelier Vikas Dongre received a text message from an unknown number. The message read “MAHANAGAR gas distribution private limited, DEAR MGL, Dear pipeline MGL Gas user Your connection will be disconnected tonight 09:00 PM. Because your previous month’s bill is not updated. Please immediately call our bill update officer, Mr Sanjay Joshi, on Mobile 9523918405.“At 3.50 pm, Dongre contacted Sanjay Joshi, who told him his MGL supply will be disconnected today due to non-payment of the Mahanagar gas connection bill. Joshi then sent an APK file link, ‘MGL BILL UPDATE (13).apk’, on WhatsApp to enable online bill payment.As Dongre was using an iPhone, the APK file did not open when clicked. He called Joshi at 4.30 pm and told him the link was not opening on an iPhone; Joshi told him to forward the APK file link to an Android phone where it would open.Dongre forwarded the link to his wife’s Android phone WhatsApp and opened it there. The file mentioned that an MGL bill payment of Rs 12 only was due. When Dongre told Joshi he would pay Rs 12 by UPI, Joshi insisted he pay using his debit card. After Dongre entered his debit card details, Joshi told him to share his ATM PIN; when Dongre suspected foul play and, disconnecting the call, exited the process of paying the MGL bill on his wife’s mobile and kept her mobile aside.After 15 minutes, Dongre realised he had not deleted the APK file on his wife’s WhatsApp. When he checked her phone, he found it was hacked. After about two hours, when her mobile restarted, there were bank alert messages of eight transactions totalling Rs 10.04 lakh debited from her bank account, as Joshi had hacked her mobile and gained remote access to her mobile data to carry out fraudulent transactions by transferring the money to different bank accounts. Dongre repeatedly called Joshi’s mobile number, but it was continuously switched off.Dongre then immediately lodged a complaint on NCCRP, after which portal officials were able to block all the transactions, saving him from suffering the monetary loss.