Daijiworld Media Network - Kaup (MS)

Kaup, Jul 14: Recently, a video was going viral on social media of a youth, resident of Kaup, who was providing 'Crow Service' for the Hindu rituals that are carried out after the death of a person. The forest department, who took notice of the same, took the said crow from the youth and released it.

Prashant Poojary, the youth from Kaup had posted on Facebook for the public to contact him in case they need Crow for the religious rituals of dead people as per the Hindu tradition. This had gone viral on other social media platforms also. Animal Welfare association and Bird suggestion committee of Udupi had registered a complaint about the Crow kept in captivity by the youth to the Forest department.

The personnel of forest department visited the house of Prashant Poojary on the morning of Saturday as per the instructions given by Clifford Lobo, Udupi Range forest officer and took the crow into their custody. Later the crow was subjected to a medical examination and let off in the forest of Pilaru Khana.

According to the youth Prashant, three baby crows had fallen from a coconut tree near his house. Out of them two died due to the impact. Prashant, who is an animal lover, reared the one baby crow that survived the fall. Later, when he attended a religious ritual of a dead person, he saw that people were waiting for a long time for the crow to arrive from somewhere and eat the food that is kept as per the belief that if the crow eats the food, the dead person's soul will get salvation. So Prashant decided to use the crow, which he reared in case people wanted the same during the ritual.

Prashant Poojary said, "I thought that the crow which I reared can be used in Hindu rituals of the dead, in which people have a belief that if the crow eats the rice, the soul of the dead person will get salvation as there is scarcity of crows, especially during the rainy season. I had no intention of doing business. I had mentioned in the Facebook post that anyone, who is in need of a crow for such ritual may contact me. However, some people, who came across my post have complained to the forest department and they have taken the bird away from me."

Manjunath, forest guard, Kaup said, "When I visited the house of Prashant Poojary as per the insructions of the range forest officer, I saw that the crow was kept in a cage. Later it was released in forest, after getting it examined medically. The house inmates told that they were not aware of the fact that rearing of crow is an offense."