Davangere/Chitradurga: If you want to enter a village in the districts of Chitradurga and Davanagere in Karnataka now, you need to carry a Covid-negative medical certificate to show.
Villagers of these two districts told ThePrint that they are now insisting on Covid-negative certificate, issued not more than three days ago, as they try to keep themselves free of Covid.
“You have come in. We are speaking to you only because you are from the media. Otherwise, the moment we see a new vehicle in our village, we stop them and ask them to return,” said Chanchaveerapa of Sidannur village in Davanagere.
As part of self-imposed lockdown in many parts of India, barricades made of wooden poles and shrubs, tractors, stones or even dug up roads have been placed on roads leading to villages to stop outsiders from coming in.
But access conditional on a Covid-negative certificate seems a novel concept. It is similar to the one that was reported from China where villagers around Wuhan armed themselves with pick axes to dig up roads and ensure the sick did not try to escape.
Residents of rural Karnataka have decided to continue this model until a vaccine to cure the novel coronavirus is found.
Apart from keeping outsiders at bay, residents of rural Karnataka are also relying on traditional methods and “natural cures” to keep Covid away. Many claimed they drink ‘gomutra’ or cow urine along with milk for immunity, and use cow dung to “cleanse” their homes to beat the virus.
Restrictions to continue until Covid cases ‘fall to zero’
Parshuram, who works as a sugarcane farmer in Arasapura, hasn’t met his son since March.
“My son works in Bengaluru. After the lockdown was lifted, he wanted to come and visit us. I asked him to stay there. People in the cities are the worst infected. How can I allow him if others from the cities are also barred? If anyone gets infected, the entire village will hold us responsible. I will make do with talking to him over phone for now,” he said.
Asked how long this rule will remain in force, Kamlamma, a gram panchayat member in Sidannur, said they will continue with this and other restrictions until the government announces that Covid cases have fallen to zero.
“We have been fining people up to Rs 5,000 if they violate rules. The reason behind this is to ensure that our people are safe. While most have understood the reason behind our action, there are others who have objected. We only tell them one thing — do you want to live to see another day? Then follow this for now,” she said.
Veerabhadrappa, another resident of the village, has also not seen his son, Mahendra, who works as a civil engineer in a private firm in Bengaluru, since the lockdown. “We have to follow rules. We have no other option,” he said.
These self-imposed lockdowns have helped many villages bring down the number of positive cases, said Venkatappa of Siddanur.
“We have asked our children who are working in cities like Bengaluru, Pune or Mumbai to get a Covid-19 negative certificate if they want to meet us,” he said.
According to latest health ministry figures, Karnataka has a total of 50,611 active cases as of Tuesday morning. The state has reported 11,192 deaths and over 7.65 lakh recoveries.
Also read: Aggressive contact tracing main reason for sudden spike in Covid cases, says Satyendar Jain
‘Cow urine keeps the coronavirus away’
People in rural Karnataka are also relying on cow urine and dung to beat the virus.
“Every morning we drink a glass of cow urine along with the fresh milk that we get from our cows. This has great medicinal properties and keeps away the coronavirus. People say don’t believe in such things, but I am a living example of how I have not been affected till date,” said Jayappa of Chitradurga’s Maarghatta village, who is also a panchayat member.
He said that his village, apart from 20 nearby villages, have been practising this since the lockdown and not a single case has been reported in the region.
“You are from the city. You may laugh at us. But the truth is that since the lockdown, we have been regularly consuming cow urine. Not a single person in our village of Balenahalli (Chitradurga) has contracted the virus,” said 68-year-old Puttuswamy.
While medical practitioners have debunked this theory, people in these areas believe that natural cures will keep the infection away.
“We have tried to convince many of them, especially office-bearers of the local gram panchayats, that they should not be propagating such false claims. However, they seem to be stuck on following traditional methods,” said Venkateshwarappa, a local physician in Angodu who is part of the first response team for Covid.
In March, the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha had organised a cow urine drinking “party”, claiming that it can protect people from the deadly virus.
Health officials, however, said the villagers’ claim that there has not been a single Covid case in the region is wrong.
“There are definitely cases in the area. We have had around 20 cases in Anagodu taluka and all the patients were treated at the Davanagere district hospital. People don’t want to say there are cases as they fear the moment we get to know, our ASHA workers and doctors will test them and they will be immediately shifted to a hospital if the tests come positive,” said Dr Raghavendra from Anagodu primary health centre.
The doctor, who has worked in several Covid care centres in Davanagere, said he has found a similar trend across the district.
Many villagers also said they believe their village gods and goddesses would save them from the coronavirus.
Veerabhadrappa recalled how his parents spoke of the 1920 Spanish Flu pandemic.
“Our gods and goddesses blessed us and they came out unscathed. This (Covid-19) is no different. We believe that our village goddess will save us this time too. Our parents prayed and conducted poojas for a year until there was no sign of the plague. This Navratri too we have called on all our gods and goddesses, to save us,” he said.
Parshuram added, “During Navratri, we invoked all the goddesses to safeguard us and ensure that she kills the virus just like she killed all the asuras. We called them corona-asuras here.”
Masks not priority
As Karnataka prepares for bypolls to two seats, Sira (Tumkur district) and RR Nagar (Bengaluru), masks also don’t seem to be on the priority list.
“We don’t need masks. But we ensure we speak to each other from a distance. The virus does not affect us in villages because we cleanse our homes with cow dung and live a healthy life,” said Gangamma, awaiting an election campaign vehicle of the Janata Dal (Secular) to pass through her village near Sira.
During the election campaigns in the village, people haven’t maintained social distancing.
“Apart from election campaigning, we make people aware of how we can control the pandemic. It is ridiculous that there are people who have fallen prey to theories that cow urine and dung will save them from Covid-19,” a senior campaign manager for the Congress candidate in Sira said on condition of anonymity.
Also read: Let your children play in the green outdoors for just a month, watch immunity grow