Women and young girls, dressed in traditional attire, made a beeline for anthills and burrows to offer prayers on the occasion of Nagula Chavithi in the early hours of Wednesday.
With the number of anthills, colloquially known as snake pits, dwindling in the city, devotees had to travel long distances searching for them on the Andhra University grounds, Government Polytechnic and the green belt along NH-16.
Thousands of people thronged the AU College of Engineering (AUCE) campus and the District Collector’s sprawling bungalow premises on the south campus of Andhra University. Though the gates were barricaded, devotees managed to make their way into the premises to pour milk and eggs into the anthills and underground burrows on the premises.
The roads leading to AUCE were chock-a-block with people going to the anthills. Women offered prayers and children lit fireworks after the puja.
There were reports of some miscreants creating artificial burrows near Appu Ghar in order to collect eggs put into them by devotees.
Meanwhile, social distancing norms went for a toss as devotees offered prayers in close proximity with dozens of other people near the anthills and burrows.
