Villagers stage rasta roko with snake’s body

Blame police, forest & media for its death

Pithapuram: A cobra that was worshipped for over 27 days in Durgada village of Gollaprolu mandal, treating it as incarnation of Lord Subrahmanya Swamy was at last dead on Thursday.

The villagers who wept inconsolably on the death of the snake found fault with the authorities for its death.

The snake, perhaps due to a medical condition, remained at one place and could not be able to zip through. The residents of Drugada and nearby villages worshipped the snake treating it as God and broke coconuts, poured milk over its head.

The snake became highly immobile and was not able to hiss properly let alone bite people. On account of this, people treated it as God.

On Thursday, the snake moved here and there near the place where it was worshipped for some time and later died as it found no way to escape because of crowd gathering all around the place.

The police and forest personnel tried to rein in the crowd that gathered to see the snake. After moving here and there the snake died with its mouth opened leaving the devotees in a state of severe shock.

The death left the devotees deeply agonised and wept inconsolably. Emotionally surcharged residents of Durgada staged a rasta roko on the national highway, 3 km away from the village, parading the body of the snake.

They blamed the police, forest officials and media for the snake’s death. The police from Kakinada and Pithapuram circles tried hard to pacify the villagers, but they did not relent.

They demanded placing Gollaprolu SI Ganesh under suspension. The police had to divert the traffic via Durgada and Chandurti to ease the congestion.