SIKYARA: Even as multi-agency teams are involved in efforts to rescue the 41 workers trapped in the under-construction Silkyara tunnel, villagers of the area are praying for the success of the operation by invoking local deities.One of the ways they are doing so is by singing Garhwali folk ‘jagars’, which are devotional songs meant to seek protection of the deities.On Friday, 63-year-old Kushpal Singh Parmar of Dhanari village reached the tunnel site and sang a ‘jagar’, whose lyrics went like this: ‘O lord, please awake and listen to my appeal.

Don’t get angry o lord, shower your blessings so that people are safe.’ Parmar said that jagars are a way of communicating with the deity.

“Our deities may often become angry because of people’s bad deeds, but they will never cause them fatal harm.

However, their anger needs to be pacified and the ‘jagar’ is one way of doing it.”Several villagers believe that the tunnel’s collapse happened due to the ‘displeasure’ of local deity, Baukhnaag Devta, considered the region’s guardian.

A few days before Diwali (when the workers got trapped), a temple devoted to the deity was razed for tunnel work.

Villagers now say ‘the wrath of the deity’ is the reason for the tunnel collapse.

.To respect the villagers’ sentiments, tunnel authorities have re-established a small temple of Boukhnaag deity at the entrance of the tunnel.

The priest of the temple offers prayers there every morning and those involved in the rescue operations can also be seen paying obeisance at the shrine before proceeding inside the tunnel.Commenting on the beliefs, Surat Singh Rawat, a social activist from Uttarkashi, said, “These religious practices may look superstitious to many people.

But it is all about faith.

Even space scientists pray to deities before the launch of any mission.”