kongremains from graves that are being reused at st inez are usually sealed in niches nearly 600 new niches are planned in the restoration work but what happens to the remains that go unclaimed the ccp has no mechanism in place to notify family members when a grave is being reused and it takes some persistence to pursue the matter a friend recalls being startled by the sight of four skulls in a single grave that was being prepared for a new burialuntil recently unclaimed remains were being thrown into an old well in the cemetery till it turned out the well wasnt dry after all a far corner in the graveyard now serves as a heap for human skeletal remains this is a dark secret the community not the civic body needs to address a mass cremation every few years would provide a note of finality perhaps to this grave storythe writer is a senior journalist views expressed are personal