Bangalore: India may be in the age of the internet and social media platforms, but the crux of the matter is that all superstition habits die hard. An example of such superstitious beliefs took place here Thursday during the solar eclipse.
Four children were buried neck-deep in the mud in a village in Kalaburagi district of Karnataka with the belief that the eclipse will cure their physical disabilities.
As most parts of the country witnessed the annular solar eclipse, the children were buried alive up to the neck in the mud that allegedly contained some dung waste, by their parents in Taj Sultanpur village.
As soon as police and district administration officials learnt about the incident, they rushed to the spot, officials informed. They with help of a few locals pulled out the children. Also they launched an investigation into the entire incident to find out whether any harm was intended to the kids.
“We have followed what our elders have told us, as medical treatment has not helped, we decided to try this… we don’t know whether it will cure our child or not, but wanted to give it a try as medical treatment did not help,” the father of a girl said.
Mother of another child said, “We have spent enough money to hospitals, now we want to try this as there is a belief that doing so during eclipse will work out, so wanted to try this.”
There were reports of similar incidents at couple of other places in the district and also at Indi in Vijayapura district.
Similar practice has been reported from the region in the past too whenever there had been solar eclipse, officials said, adding that their numbers have come down significantly.
Agencies