KARWAR: Tiger worship is a centuryold tradition in many parts of Uttara Kannada district. This practice is still in vogue at Kanasgiri village near here and elsewhere in the district.
The pooja is held every year during the Hindu month of 'Karthika'. It was held at Kanasgiri on Friday evening. Each family brings an earthen pot painted with the tiger's face on it to a nearby forest and keeps it on a particular place on the day of pooja. Various dishes are offered to the tiger god on the occasion.
According to Deepak Naik, president of Yuvaka Sangha of the village, earlier the villagers used to carry the earthen idol of tiger for pooja.
For the past two decades this practice has been stopped. Instead the pots are worshipped.
The elders in the village recollect that the village was surrounded by thick forests around 5060 years ago. The forest was a natural habitat for tigers. Many villagers had noticed tigers roaming freely in the forest.
But indiscriminate hunting and denudation of forest resulted in depletion of tiger population. According to them the cattle, grazing in the forest, used to be the easy target for the tigers. It was in this context tiger worship started on the belief that tigers would be pleased with the worship and stop killing the cattle.
According to R D Naik, a retired chief mineral economist, hunting of tigers in the jungles of Uttara Kannada district was a pastime and a fun for royal families and the British.
Joida forest area had thick tiger population then. Mining activity in Joida taluk also was responsible for the depletion of tiger population, he says.
If at all a few tigers still exist in the forest region of the district, the villagers, who worship tiger should be complimented, he said.
In Sirsi, Siddapur and Yellapur taluks, one can find the statues of tigers in the thick forest.
The villagers from surrounding areas offer pooja in those places once in a year.