A week after slaughtering 250000 cows, earthquake destoyed their temples, killed thousands… Nature revenging?

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  Before the great earthquake struck, million devotees of Hinduism religion celebrated their cow festival in Nepal. 
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Before the great earthquake struck, million devotees of Hinduism religion celebrated their cow festival in Nepal.

Before the great earthquake struck, million devotees of Hinduism religion celebrated their cow festival in Nepal.
More than 20,000 buffaloes were sacrificed on the first day. It is estimated that 250,000 animals were sacrificed during the Gadhimai festival. The ritual killings were performed by more than 200 men in a concrete slaughterhouse near the temple.
Worshipers believe that the animal sacrifice, meant to appease Gadhimai, the Hindu goddess of power, to bring them luck and prosperity.
Gadhimai festival is a sacrificial ritual that is held every 5 years at the Gadhimai Temple of Bariyarpur, in Bara District, about 100 miles (160 km) south of the capital Kathmandu in southern Nepal, near the Indo-Nepal border. The event involves the world’s second largest sacrificial slaughter of animals after Hajj including water buffaloes, pigs, goats, chicken, rats, and pigeons – with the goal of pleasing Gadhimai, the goddess of power.
Participants believe that animal sacrifices to the Hindu goddess Gadhimai will end evil and bring prosperity.

More than 5,000 people are confirmed dead from Saturday’s earthquake just outside Kathmandu, Nepal. Nearly 11,000 more were injured, according to Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Center.

 

“We had an official bulletin last night, telling people that it was OK for them to return home and sleep indoors tonight. Shortly after that bulletin went out, we had a 4.8 aftershock. So, things still very much evolving here — and a lot of scared and nervous people.”
The U.S. State Department confirmed late Monday that four Americans were among those killed in the earthquake, all at an avalanche-struck Mount Everest base camp. The fatalities included a Colorado-based documentary filmmaker and a Google executive, the AP reported.
The BBC reports that 1.4 million of the 8 million people affected need food aid, citing the United Nations saying that there also are severe shortages of body bags and medical supplies.

Source: U.S. Geological Survey
Credit: Alyson Hurt/NPR

Meanwhile, Reuters reports Nepalis including Pradip Subba of Kathmandu — frustrated with a lack of aid so far — continue to sift through the rubble by themselves.

” ‘Our hands are the only machine right now,’ said the 27-year-old, part of a group of locals pulling out blocks of concrete with cloth masks over their faces to ward off the stench of rotting bodies. ‘There is just no one from the government or the army to help us.’ ”

USAID has provided a list of recommended nongovernmental organizations that can take donations to assist those affected by the earthquake.