No place to die | In Karnataka’s Ganagapura, the old and sick are are left to their fate

On October 18, visuals of the body of an elderly woman being devoured by a pack of dogs exposed the practice of old or infirm people being abandoned in Ganagapura in north Karnataka. Praveen B. Para reports from the temple town on those who visit in the hope that their loved ones will be cured of their ailments and on those who are left to their own fate

Ganagapura appears serene to a first-time visitor, with its irrigated lush green sugarcane fields and the famous Sri Dattatreya temple at the confluence of the Bhima and Amarja rivers. But in mid-October, a chilling incident in this famous temple town in Kalaburagi district in north Karnataka — of a pack of dogs devouring the body of a destitute woman in her late sixties — revealed to the world an inhuman practice that has gone on with little intervention from the authorities for as long as the residents can remember.

Old or infirm people are often abandoned by their families in this town, which is located in the border taluk of Afzalpur and is popularly known by devotees as Deval Ganagapur (‘Deval’ in Marathi means temple). Survival is not easy in Ganagapura: temperatures in the daytime during summer can soar beyond 45 degrees Celsius and dip to 8 degrees Celsius during winter. Yet, this inhuman practice has carried on, in the belief that the holy place can provide a “natural cure” for those with mental illnesses and for those said to be “possessed by evil spirits”.

Residents say that for a long time, those with mental illnesses were brought to the town and abandoned by their kith and kin. But now, even elderly people and ailing parents and siblings are being left in the town to meet their inevitable end. Those who are abandoned sustain themselves with the free food that devotees, who mainly come from Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Goa, provide as offerings to Lord Dattatreya. Besides, residents of the town offer food to anyone who comes asking for it (Maadhukari) after the afternoon prayers at the temple. This is because there is a local belief that Lord Dattatreya goes tapping on the doors of houses in different guises after the prayers.

This brutal practice of abandoning the aged or infirm at Ganagapura may have remained little known beyond the region but for the horrific incident that came to light on October 18. Officials maintain that the identity of the dead woman is not yet clear, but locals recognise her as Mallamma. Baanobee, a fruit vendor who sits near the temple, says Mallamma, who came from a village in Bidar district, used to work as a domestic helper in a couple of houses, but stopped following health complications. She eventually developed gangrene in both her legs.

Officials say the woman was last seen the day before the gruesome incident, near Dyavamma temple, which is located on the way to Ganagapura sangama (confluence). Since the area was dark, the woman’s death went unnoticed initially. The incident came to light only the next morning. By then, her body had been partially devoured by stray dogs.

As the incident sent shock waves beyond the town, the Chief Executive Officer of Kalaburagi Zilla Panchayat, Girish Badole, rushed to the spot. Twenty abandoned people in the town were immediately shifted to the government old age home in Kalaburagi. Badole said he directed officers in the Department for the Empowerment of the Differently Abled and Senior Citizens to file a police complaint. He also directed the officers to take up an awareness campaign in and around Ganagapura so that abandoned senior citizens can take shelter in the old age home.

Local residents say that deaths of old or ailing persons on the streets, or in the swollen Bhima river, or at the sangama are “common”. Just a day before the death of the woman identified by the residents as Mallamma, another unidentified person, who was about 70 years old, was found dead on the streets of the temple town. And on October 20, yet another unidentified woman, about 60 years old, was found dead at a shelter near the sangama. According to the police, in the last three years, 11 abandoned old people have died due to drowning. In 2022 alone, four people have drowned in the river so far.