Due to the heavy downpour in many parts of Andhra Pradesh in recent days, reptiles have been making their way into the waterlogged agricultural fields. Owing to this, reportedly, over 100 cases of snakebites were recorded in Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district in last two months.
Ritual to appease the snake Gods
The government’s endowments department staged a “Yagna” with an aim to appease the snake Gods and thereby lift the morale of the panic-stricken locals on August 29. The “Sarpa Shanti Yagna” took place in the famous Subramanyeswara Swamy temple in Mopidevi where various rituals take place throughout the year. Reportedly the decision to conduct a ‘sarpayagam’ has drawn flak from various quarters of the society as well.
According to reports, there was a steady increase in the number of snakebite victims over the last few weeks, with one fatality in the Avanigadda district and another in Gannavaram district of Andhra Pradesh. However the decision of arranging ‘sarpayagam’, didn’t go well with the anti-superstition organisations like the Jana Vignana Vedika. The Vedika made an argument that acts like such, from the government not only supports but also promotes these unwarranted superstitions. “This is only to hoodwink the people and a waste of money,” the organisation’s state president Jampa Krishna Kishore told NDTV in a statement.
As a counter-response, the Government officials are urging these bodies to treat this as one of the many, Yagas and Pujas that take place in the temples. Moreover, this Puja was primarily conducted to calm the petrified villagers.
The Logical Indian Take
Although the authorities arranged for this ritual with an aim to reassure frightened locals, this will only increase their belief in such superstitions and thereby we would be taking a step backwards in terms of both worldly and scientific understandings of crucial matters. However, we urge the authorities to look for more alternatives in order to diffuse this crisis. We hope for this rising count of snakebite victims to drastically go down and the villages to bounce back to normalcy.
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