The villagers of a far- flung coastal village, started a 5-day Yajna on Friday near the sea beach to get a respite from the wrath of the crawling sea.
The villagers, after having lost faith on the Government on the issue of solving the endemic problem of sea erosion and flooding, organised the ritual to save their houses from taking possible watery grave in the Bay of Bengal.
If sources are to be believed, about 1,000 villagers of coastal Pentha village under Rajnagar block, organised the Yajna to save their village. Every year, sea erosion damages the dilapidated embankment and causes huge loss of properties of the villagers.
The enthusiasm and religious fervour was evidentas the gullible villagers worshipped Maa Ganga Mata and sea god Baruna to protect the village from the ever changing course of the Bay of Bengal.
“The Yajna is performed to propitiate Baruna and Ganga Mata in the wake of the menace of tidal water ingress into our village,” said former block chairman of Rajnagar Jagabandhu Nayak.
"The main aim in arranging the Yajna is to get rid of tidal water ingress into the village. There are numerous instances of such types of Yajna in the past when the villagers faced natural disasters like dry spell and drought. The villagers arranged the Yajna to save their property from the wrath of Nature,” said working president of Yajna committee Damodar Biswal.