The battle against severe shortage of rain has taken another superstitious turn as people of Bihar sacrifice thousands of frogs to appease rain Gods. This is the newest of bizarre rituals added to the list of frog weddings and ploughing the fields for rain. Bihar has seen a 42 per cent deficit in rainfall this monsoon.
Beng Kutni- the ritual of crushing frogs have been taken up by farmers of five districts of rain-starved Magadh- Gaya, Jehanabad, Aurangabad, Nawada and Arwal in hopes of better rainfall.
The Met department's prediction of a dry monsoon for the state has left many farmers worried who in turn have turned to the Gods for help.
Baliram Singh, a villager of Chiriyawan told news agency IANS about the age-old ritual of Beng Kutni. A group of women are supposed to dig a makeshift water body and fill it up with water brought from all the wells in the village. Then they are to catch dozens of live frogs from nearby bushes and wetlands and put them in the freshly dug water body. After this the frogs are crushed to death.
Taking the bizarre ritual further, they then prepare a garland of the dead frogs and a man wears it. The man then has to hurl abuses. The more the abuse, the better the chances of rain.
The practice is prevalent in many parts of Bihar and people have taken to many other rituals to please the Gods.
Of Bihar's 37 districts, 22 have received 60 per cent less rainfall. Only six districts recorded normal rainfall.
A few days back in Uttar Pradesh, two sisters took to ploughing the field in order to please rain gods. Last month, two frogs were married off in Madhya Pradesh to please rain gods which was even attended by a minister. A similar ceremony was also held in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi city but instead of real frogs, toy frogs were used.
The widespread fear of drought-like situation among millions of farmers who have faced similar situation thrice in the last seven years have taken to superstition as the last resort.
(with inputs from IANS)
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