After a furore in the Parsi community last week over a new nameplate that identified the Tower of Silence cemetery at Malabar Hill as a 'smashanbhoomi', a word usually used to identify a crematorium, the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) has removed the word from the name board.

The 50-acre forest cemetery is popularly called Doongerwadi. A week ago, the BPP decided to add a Marathi name at the gates of the cemetery. However, the choice of the word angered orthodox members of the community who wondered whether a crematorium was being added at site against their wishes. The cemetery is a site for dokhmenashini or sky burials where corpses are laid out to be disposed of by the sun and carrion birds.

In the past, suggestions to add a crematorium in the hilly cemetery was rejected by the community high priests and orthodox members.Community members who wanted a crematorium later set up a prayer hall inside the Worli municipal cemetery for those looking for alternatives to traditional funerals. The trust also installed solar panels - now dysfunctional - to speed up the desiccation of the bodies.

Viraf Mehta, chairman of the BPP, which manages the cemetery, said that the word 'smashanbhoomi' has been erased from the board.