Deaths of Cows at Vemulawada Temple Raises Alarm
Devotees blame temple staff for poor management
Karimnagar: The death of 14 cows at a goushala of Vemulawada Rajanna Temple raised alarm among devotees in Rajanna Sircilla district.
Devotees have a tradition of donating calves to presiding deity Sri Rajareshwara Swamy, seeking blessings for health and prosperity as part of a ritual Kode Mokku at the temple. The temple authorities take care of cows by keeping them at the temple goushala in Thippapur village.
At present, there are around 1,250 cows, which is more than three times the capacity of the goushala. As a result, the movement of the cows has been restricted. Apart from that, lack of basic amenities with a few staff followed by heavy rains recently, turned the facility muddy, leading to infections among cows, particularly in the hooves of many animals, resulting in illness and deaths.
When around eight cows died on Friday, the temple staff secretly buried the deceased animals in pits dug at Mulawagu by shifting them with tractors.
The devotees and locals allege that despite of Rajanna Temple earning over Rs 22 crore annually from the Kode Mokku offerings, the temple authorities are negligent and are least bothered about taking care of cows by establishing more goushalas with a lot of space so that cows can move freely and demanded the higher authorities take immediate action against the temple staff.
Meanwhile, after learning about the incident, district collector Sandeep Kumar Jha issued orders to Sircilla Veterinary team of officials to visit the goushala and conduct a health checkup of the cows.
Receiving orders from Dr Anji Reddy, a team of veterinary doctors, including Rahul, Abhilash, Sahiti and Deepthi, inspected the goushala and observed the cows that died in a stampede. After conducting a health check-up and reviewing the situation, they submitted the report to the collector.
Jha also visited the goushala and inspected arrangements being made apart from quality of fodder being provided to the cows.
He said that eight cows died due to health reasons because of heavy rains and advised the people not to believe false propaganda spread on social media.
He ordered the temple staff to take care of cows in a more responsible manner and ensure the fodder provided to them is carefully monitored. He instructed staff to provide green grass regularly and keep the cowshed clean to make arrangements for the distribution of cows to poor farmers soon.
