Jamshedpur, Dec. 19: Priests of a Naga temple at Jugsalai have apparently got angry with animal bones being found at the temple this morning.

A delegation of priests, including main priest Baba Brihaspati Giri, has met deputy commissioner Nitin Madan Kulkarni and police superintendent Pankaj Darad to apprise them of the situation requesting for a boundary wall around the age-old temple’s sprawling campus along the Kharkai.

Kulkarni is said to have assured the delegation — supported by BJP district president Rambabu Tiwary — that he had full sympathy with Giri and assured him of beginning the construction as soon as possible. The delegation requested Darad to keep criminals at bay so that the sanctum’s sanctity can be kept intact.

Later, during a survey of the temple premises, a police team, led by Jugsalai officer-in-charge O. Toppo, found a heap of bones at the troubled spot and assured the temple management of stepping up patrolling in the locality during the night.

Giri said: “It was not only the case of dropping animal bones at the temple, but also a matter of encroachment into the temple land, which is a rayati land. We have a 7-acre land with the temple situated on the one side of it. But as there is no wall, some people have built cottages on the land that partially belong to the temple. I suppose, the frequent incidents of bones dropping is a part of the attempt to grab the land.” However, he said people from minority communities also take part in programmes, including bhajanas, of the temple round the year.