2024.12.28 (Vrindavan Today News): One of India’s most sacred lake Radha Kund, holds deep cultural and religious significance for Vaishnavas, particularly the Gaudiyas. Millions of Vaishnavas perform countless rituals here, including bathing and sipping its water.
Among these religious traditions is the act of tossing coins into the waters, symbolizing the wishes, prayers or hopes for blessings for devotees – a ritual that has turned the pond into a collection point for coin offerings.
In recent years, a unique activity has emerged along the bank of Radhakund, that of retrieving the sunken coins using magnets. For some, this extraction of coins and other metallic objects has become more than just sport, but earning money. They cast a bunch of magnets tied in a rope into the river, patiently waits for it to sink into the waterbody, and then fishes out clump of coins.
While it all look interesting for the viewers, but it is actually causing damage to the nature in disguise. The turtles, particularly the young ones, are getting injured as the magnet bunch hits its shell when the coin collectors throw their tool to retrieve the sunken coins.
The local sadhus who reside near the kund claimed that sometime turtles’ shell get fractured when the magnet hit its shell. Many of them have succumbed to the injury. One of the sadhus who doesn’t want to quote his name said that he was beaten by the miscreants when he tried to stop them from throwing the heavy bunch of magnets in the kund.
The sadhus said they try to help the turtles by applying herbal ointment on their shell and then release them back in the water. However, this is just a solace for the person trying help the turtle, but it is not certain that the turtles get recovered by the treatment.
