Thousands administered fish prasadam

​Hyderabad: Thousands of visitors from various parts of the country thronged Exhibition Grounds at Nampally here on Friday to receive ‘fish prasadam’ considered to be a miracle cure for asthma and chronic respiratory problems.

A live fish with yellow medicinal dough is given to asthma patients to swallow by Bathini Goud family, which they are doing it for over several years. Snakehead Murrel ‘Channa striata’ is collected from various ponds in Telangana for fish prasadam.

It might seem bizarre for some but thousands of believers trust this as a form of medicine. Many claim that the herbal medicine is absolute miracle.

Many visitors claim to have been treated with the help of this herb. A visitor Bhanu Singh from Rajasthan said, “I came here for the second time, because of this medicine my breathlessness has reduced. I have heard that taking this medicine for three years can uproot the disease.”

Another visitor from Sikkim, Bulchand Pai said, “I have been here for the first time with my family, since we have a genetic problem of asthma in our family. We hope that through this medicine asthma problem would be cured.”

One of the family member of Bathini Goud, Indramma said, “The fish is an essential part of the treatment it slips through the gut wagging its fins spreading the herb all over your lungs and cures the disease.”

Fish might be administered for non-vegetarians but for vegetarians Bathini family has an alternative. The miracle cure is given with jaggery for vegetarians, which is called ‘Bellam Prasadam’.

General Manager from the Fisheries department V Srinivas said, “We increased supply of fish to 1.3 lakh. The number of fishlings depends on the crowd. The average visitors in the past four years has been about 65,000. We always get double the number of fishlings for most of them die during transportation.”