Lots of of individuals attended the tearful funeral Monday of a crocodile believed to have been divine and which survived for many years on a vegetarian weight loss plan at a Hindu temple in India.
Babia guarded the much-revered Sri Ananthapadmanabha Swamy temple within the southern state of Kerala, lurking within the surrounding lake for almost 80 years, the temple's secretary Ramachandran Bhat stated.
The revered reptile was discovered floating lifeless within the lake early on Monday after reportedly being off its meals for a number of days.
The temple in Kasaragod devoted to the Hindu god Vishnu is 3,000 years previous, and has been protected for hundreds of years by a lone "divine" crocodile, Bhat informed AFP.
"The final divine crocodile was shot useless by the British navy someday in 1940 and after that Babia appeared within the lake," Bhat stated.
"We won't say the place it got here from, however the lake is linked to caves beneath," Bhat stated.
Babia was thought of holy as a result of it was thought by no means to have attacked one other animal or any human — together with kids who have been delivered to the lake's edge to the touch the reptile to achieve its blessings.
Many believed it survived on "prasadam," sacred helpings of rice and jaggery blessed and sanctified by the temple monks, however Bhat stated he didn't stand by the declare "as a result of there are fish within the lake".
The scaly corpse was adorned with flowers and blessed earlier than being carried by way of the gang of mourners on a coconut leaf mattress positioned on a litter after which buried on the temple compound.
India's minister for agriculture and farmers' welfare Shobha Karandlaje, reasserting that it had a meat-free weight loss plan, stated in a tweet that "the god's personal crocodile" has attained salvation.