GUWAHATI, Jan 20 - Death of the swans of the Ugratara Temple has raised alarm among the animal lovers here. The temple has around 100 swans. These swans are the part of the offerings made by the devotees to the reigning deity Ugratara. The swans have also become an inalienable part of the Uzanbazar Jorpukhuri area landscape.
According to legends, Ugratara was found to be the Neel Saraswati by Sage Basistha while offering his obeisance to the Goddess. Since then, the deity is worshipped also as an incarnation of the Goddess Saraswati and hence the devotees offer her live swans as a mark of respect, as swan is considered to be the vehicle of Goddess Saraswati.
During the past about seven days around seven swans of the temple were found dead. But there is no step by any of the authorities to ascertain the cause of the death of the swans, let alone any step to prevent such fatalities, alleged the animal lovers.
It also needs mention here that hundreds of fishes of the Jorpukhuri, which is a part of the Ugratara Temple organisation, died mysteriously about four months back. There was wide media coverage of the incident and the temple authority reportedly sold off the fishes.
About a month back, a big size soft-shelled turtle died. The temple is a home of several such turtles.
The district administration has by this time formed a high level committee for conservation of the endangered turtles of Jorpukhuri as well as for overall development of the famous pond. However, some animal lovers are not satisfied with this move.
Meanwhile, advocate Bijan Mahajan, who is a resident of the Jorpukhuri area, said that there should be steps to periodically monitor the health condition of the swans, the ducks, the pigeons of the Ugratara Temple and the turtles and the fishes of the Jorpukhuri by the Veterinary and Fisheries Departments� officials.
Some NGOs should also come forward to arrange feeding of the swans and the ducks, he said, adding, if the feeding could be organised, then a huge number of people would come forward to extend support to the programme.
