Andhra Pradesh government's endowments department has come up with a unique way to prevent snakebites in the region. The officials have planned to conduct a special prayer service to appease the snake god.
After heavy rains lashed several parts of the state, reptiles have been making their way into the agricultural fields and villages like Nagayalanka and Avanigadda, resulting in a number of attacks in the Diviseema region in the last couple of months.
While two people have lost their lives, over hundred have been hospitalised due to snakebites in the state's Krishna district in the last two months. District health authorities have reported that one person has died in Avanigadda and another in Gannavaram. In the last ten days, Avanigadda's government hospital has seen a large number of snakebite victims.
The best solution that authorities could come up is conducting a 'sarpayagam' or 'sarpa dosha nivarana puja'. All the arrangements have been made at Mopidevi's Subramanyeswara temple where the ritual is scheduled to be performed on August 29.
According to district collector B Lakshmikantham, the ritual will be performed by priests with the support of the district administration and the state government's endowments department.
The move has garnered flak from different quarters of the society with anti-superstition organisations like the Jana Vignana Vedika raising strong objections towards the ritual.
The Jana Vignana Vedika is an organisation which has been working towards promoting a scientific temper in individuals' minds. The organisation has objected to the ritual saying that it is only going to promote superstitious beliefs while wasting the state's money.
The organisation's state president Jampa Krishna Kishore said that this is not the first time that such a ritual was being performed. Jampa highlighted that the previous government had also conducted rituals like the 'varuna yagam' in order to pray for rains in the state but it did not yield any positive results.
However, the government now feels that performing such rituals should not be seen as a superstition. "This should not be seen as a superstition. Many yagas and pujas are performed in temples regularly and the sarpayagam is similar to that," a senior official was quoted as saying by PTI.
(With PTI Inputs)
