The alleged intrusion of around 150 people into Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve and their 48-hour-long stay deep inside the core zone beyond Manjolai in the Western Ghats for conducting a special puja to appease rain gods has shocked environmentalists here.
Some of the devotees, who participated in the trip to ‘Thalai Aruvi,’ claim they had camped there for two days to complete the special puja only with the permission of officials concerned.
Whenever monsoon played truant in the British era, people from villages close to the Western Ghats trekked to ‘Thalai Aruvi,’ the waterfalls situated about 2,500 feet above sea level that feeds Manimuthar dam, and performed special ‘Sapta Kanni’ puja as they believed that the deities bathed in unpolluted and serene pool near the falls.
“Whenever this pool gets polluted by human intervention, the ‘Sapta Kanni’ would pray to rain gods to cleanse the entire area with torrential rain for weeks together.
While the pool gets cleansed, it would be a blessing to all southern districts. So, to pollute the pool with animal sacrifice, we’d gone there. Two goats were sacrificed and the blood was poured into the pool amidst chanting of prayers in a bid to pollute it,” one of the devotees said.
Around 150 people from some of the villages in Ambasamudram taluk trekked to ‘Thalai Aruvi’ recently through the core zone of the tiger reserve and stayed there for two days to complete the rituals. “This is a centuries-old belief and we still follow it whenever drought-like situation surfaces.
As the entire Tamil Nadu is facing acute drought this year, we conducted the puja with permission of officials,” said a devotee.
Deputy Director of KMTR’s Ambasamudram Division N. Jayaraj, who was not aware of this incident, said he would order an enquiry into the “alleged intrusion” of outsiders into the core zone.