COVID-19 induced pandemic situations have put the bio-medical waste (BMW) management system, of the world, to test . Sudden influx, of COVID-infected patients, in health-care facilities, has increased the generation of yellow category BMW (Y-BMW) and put substantial burden on the BMW-incineration units of India . This study presents the compromising situation of the BMW-incineration units of India, in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, from 21st March 2020 to 31st August 2020 . This analysis revealed that on an average each COVID-infected patient in India generates approximately 3.41 kg/d of BMW and average proportion of Y-BMW in it is 50.44% . Further, it was observed that on 13th July 2020, the total Y-BMW, generated by both the normal and COVID-infected patients, fully utilized the BMW-incineration capacity of India . Also, it was made evident that, during the study period, BMW-incineration emitted several pollutants and their concentration was in the order: NOx> CO> SOx> PM> HCl> Cd> Pb> Hg> PCBs> Ni> Cr> Be> As . Subsequently, life time cancer risk assessment depicted that with hazard quotient> 10−6, Cd may induce carcinogenic health impacts on both the adults and children of India . Therefore, to mitigate the environmental-health impacts associated with the incineration of BMW, evaluation of various options, viz., alternative technologies, substitution of raw materials and separate treatment of specific wastes, was also done . It is expected that the findings of this study may encourage the global auditory comprising scientific community and authorities to adopt alternate BMW-management strategies during the pandemic.