Devotees with animals for sacrifice in front of Panchuvarahi shrine at Rajnagar. Telegraph picture

Kendrapara, April 19: Throwing legal embargo to the winds, villagers resorted to slaughtering of animals in Panchuvarahi shrine in Rajnagar area, in a bid to seek divine intervention to ‘save’ their vulnerable human settlement from sea’s scourge.

The ritual was performed on Monday night amid frenzied religious fervour. Making mockery of law that bars such religious traditions, some low ranking police and revenue staffs attended the gory ritual.

As the abominable practice went on till wee hours with the shrill yelling of slaughtered animals reverberating the seaside shakti shrine, one could see glaring presence of the elected panchayati raj members.

“The ritual to appease the deity was held throughout last night. Over 2,000 devotees had congregated at the sacrifice spot. Almost 102 animals, including goats and cocks. were sacrificed to propitiate the Panchuvarahi deity,” said Sashmita Das, Satabhaya sarpanch.

“This ritual is held twice every year — once at the time of Dussehra and the second time on the auspicious occasion of Chaitra purnima (full moon in the month of Chaitra). In earlier days, the feudal ruler of Kanika was the principal patron of the sacrificial ritual. But nowadays, people here are still following the tradition out of a belief that deity would save the sea-erosion-hit Satabhaya and Kanhupur villages,” said Das.

The local gram rakkhi (village police guard) and revenue inspector were present during the observance of the ritual, said Das. However, deputy superintendent of police P.K. Routray said: “To the best of my knowledge, no representative of police attended the ritual.”

“We are not aware of the revenue inspector’s participation in the animal sacrifice. The administration had prior information of the occurrence of the ritual. No animals rights’ body had brought it to our notice,” said Ranjan Kumar Das, sub-collector of Kendrapara.

“We believe in tradition. We are not aware of what the law says. As the deity is protecting us, we still repose unflinching faith in sacrifice ritual,” said Amarendra Sutar, a villager.

The animals with their garlanded neck were lined up and they were put to gallows amid frenzied religious celebration, Das said. “The observance of animal sacrifice atSatabhaya dates back to history. The Panchuvarahi shrine here is at least 300-year-old. The practice is as old as the temple itself,” said archaeologist Bijoy Kumar Rath.

“We have been observing the ritual to propitiate the deity. Our area is facing the wrath of the sea. Over the years, the advancing sea has eaten up large parts of seaside gram panchayat. We repose faith on the deity and hope that goddesses would save the rest of Satabhaya from the furious sea,” added Das.