Villagers hold ritual after calf drowns

Raigarh | Correspondent: Residents of the Gaurmudi village located in the Tamnar forest range of Chhattisgarh organised a Dashkarma ceremony for an elephant's calf who recently passed away drowning in the village's pond.

On 24 November in night, a herd of 34 elephants passing Gaurmudi village stopped at the region's pond to drink water.

One of the calves who was part of the herd got trapped and fell into the deeper side of the pond unfortunately it drowned.

Later the next day, officials from the forest department performed its autopsy and cremated the cub.

Since then, the group of elephants have been roaming around the village and damaging the crops.

Dashkarma for the peace of the elephant's soul

To ensure the peace of the deceased elephant's soul and reduce the elephant menace in the village, villagers performed a ritualistic worship at the pond on Wednesday morning.

Nearly 200 villagers participated in this Dashkarma. Everyone consumed the food prepared through mutual cooperation as a funeral feast.

Village resident Ramesh Kumar Panda explained that a herd of elephants has been damaging the rice crop in the village for the past few days.

Therefore, with everyone's consent, this event was organized under religious rituals to maintain peace and security in the village.