A 500-foot-high deodar tree collapsed near Hadimba Devi temple and killed two and injured five persons on Friday. The goddess stressed on the need to preserve the environment. Old Manali panchayat pradhan Hukum Ram said goddess Hadimba has indicated that the peaceful jungle around her temple should be vacated soon.
"The goddess has warned of more such happenings and has denied accepting modern changes in the temple surroundings," he said, adding that the authorities concerned shall definitely try to do away with pollution. Earlier this month, many deities of Kullu had warned residents to stop extracting herbs from the jungles, reasoning that rash extraction of forest wealth was unbalancing the life cycle.
Photos from here.
In fact, in the recent past there have been many instances of local gods and goddesses "intervening" to decide issues of public interests. So much so that some deities have also "spoken" against power projects in their areas of influence. Kullu valley has this ancient tradition of local deities "communicating" with people though temple priests.
