Even as State Considers Cow-slaughter Ban, Buffalos Get Beheaded
Daijiworld Media Network – Koppal (SP)
Koppal, Feb 16: Blood flowed like water at Donnegudda Durugamma temple in Kushtagi taluk of the district, as devotees beheaded scores of rams and buffaloes, leaving the blood-trickling animal heads near the temple on Sunday February 14. The ritual of animal sacrifice, being held on the next day of Shivaratri at the triennial fair of Goddess Durugamma Temple, has been going on unabated, in spite of the efforts of the administration and the state to stop it.
The district administration’s claims of making all out efforts to stop the practice appeared to remain on paper. The temple committee too sacrificed the buffalo they had earmarked for the Goddess. As per an estimate, about six to seven thousand rams and a thousand buffalos got sacrificed at the temple. People believe that earmarking new-born calf to the Goddess, and sacrificing it to the Goddess after it grows, saves them from the anger of the Goddess. Superstitions reigned supreme, as law-makers closed their eyes to the blatant violation of a ban placed on the public sacrifice of animals through an act that came into force in the state in 1959.
The heads and hooves of these animals were dumped in a large pit dug near the temple for the purpose, and then buried by using mud. The devotees were seen to be freely slicing through the necks of the animals they had reserved for the sacrifice, as no one stopped or questioned them. During the last fair, the district administration, which was under immense pressure from various organizations against animal violence, had taken strict measures to stop the practice of sacrifice and had considerably succeeded in its efforts. However, this time, no such steps were in place. As the revenue and police departments kept vigil at the temple yard and showed unwillingness to take on thousands of devotees who got together for the fair, the animal sacrifice went on without any hitches. In the year 2004, the then district superintendent of police had personally kept vigil at the temple fair and seen to it that no animal sacrifice took place. In 2007, although a vigil was kept, the villagers had succeeded in killing a few hundred animals secretly.
Blood was seen flowing into the fields adjacent to the temple, and the villagers had confined their children to the homes, apprehending that they may not be able to take the macabre scene of large heaps of skulls and torsos of the sacrificed animals, with blood oozing from them. The villagers follow the practice of taking back carcasses of the slain rams, while the meat of the buffalos is taken away by the dalits for consumption.
The state Prani Daya Sangha has blamed the district administration, including the deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police, for their failure to enforce the legal ban. Its coordinator, Sri Dayananda Swami, met the state director general of police, Ajai Kumar Singh, on Monday February 15, seeking a thorough investigation into the above large scale sacrifice of animals. District superintendent of police, Eshwarachandra Vidyasagar, contradicting reports about large scale slaughter of animals near the temple, claimed that the villagers had sacrificed the animals in their homes and then brought the severed heads to the temple, before burying them some distance away from the temple. He also said that he had asked the officials to identify and arrest the people who had buried the animal heads near the temple.
Late night on Sunday, a case was registered against six persons, including the president of the Durugamma Devi Fair Committee, Babanna V Desai, and other office bearers, for abetting the act of sacrificing of rams and buffalos in the name of offerings to the Goddess, under Karnataka Prevention of Animal Sacrifices Act, 1959. The case was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by Hanumantappa Yamanappa Deepali from Donnegudda village, saying that the temple committee office bearers had illegally collected fees from the devotees, who wanted to fulfill their religious vows, and permitted them to sacrifice the animals, in violation of the government orders.
After coming to know about the massive slaughter of animals at the temple, deputy superintendent of police from Gangavati, S K Mulasavalagi, visited the village and conducted verification on Monday.