The age-old ritual of sacrificing animals still holds its sway among devotees with hens being mercilessly killed on Thursday evening on the occasion of the Jagrata Gouri Panchami before the deity Jagulai at Berhampur under Garadapur block.
The ritual was performed in front of the 300-year-old Maa Budhi Jagulai temple when the Bije Pratima of Jagulai began the annual visit to villages to bless the villagers of prosperity.
Several persons of Garadpur, Berhampur, Sitalapatana, Khardasahi, Tigiria and Nuapada offered animals for sacrifice for fulfilment of their wishes. As it is believed that if a devotee offers animal for sacrifice on this particular day then all his wishes bear fruit with the blessings of the deity.
But this time, only some hens were sacrificed and later many devotees released their birds in the open in the name of the deity, stated Ratnakar Rana, priest of the temple.
Berhampur locals said Goddess Jagulai protects them from all sorts of problems. So, the animal sacrifice practice is going on in the locality since more than hundred years.
Though the district administration and wildlife activists were very much aware of the vent, they preferred to remain mum because of the strong faith of the devotees in propitiating the goddess with animal sacrifice.