Marshaghai: Bahakandia village under Marshaghai block in Kendrapara district bore witness to the rarest of rare funeral processions Wednesday.
A procession was taken out in the honour of a bull with all the villagers participating in it and mourning the death of the animal.
The bull was roaming around in the locality. It suddenly fell ill three months ago, restricting its movement. The female folks of the village came forward to treat the sick bull. They offered it food and medicine too.
Despite their three-month long tireless efforts, they could not save the animal. It breathed its last Wednesday.
The grief-stricken villagers then decided to give the animal a decent farewell.
They decided to accord a grand procession to it. Its body was placed on an open trailer of a tractor with all honours. Treating its body like that of a human being, the women weeping all the while applied ‘gulal’ or ‘abhir’ on its body, draped a piece of white cloth on it and then decorated the trailer with flowers and garlands.
The bedecked tractor was then taken out in a procession through the village amidst chanting of ‘Hari Bol’. Then the animal was cremated at the village cremation ground, with the villagers giving a tearful adieu to the animal.
The village committee is learnt to be going to host a feast in memory of the bull inviting all the villagers of Bahakandia village and the ones of neighbouring villages.
It is also learnt that the village committee has decided to get a tomb constructed at the village cremation ground within 21 days of the animal’s death so that the animal will still live in on the memories of the villagers.
PNN