People distressed over drought and desperate to keep their areca plantations alive in parts of Ajjampura taluk in Chikkamagaluru district have resorted to a rather macabre superstitious practice of exhuming the bodies of those who had leukoderma (vitiligo) from graveyards and consigning them to flames, believing that it brings good rain.
In the last 15 days, at least five bodies have been exhumed in parts of Ajjampura taluk. According to residents of Jaladihalli village, four bodies were exhumed in one night and then burnt within minutes. They maintain that the recent rains that the village received were a result of the custom they followed.
