Overview
- A teenage boy in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, died after relatives followed a tantrik’s instruction to tie him to a bamboo raft and keep him in the Ganga for about 12 hours following a snakebite.
- Video shared widely on social media shows the unresponsive child bound to the makeshift raft as people watched from the riverbank.
- Reports say the family chose ritual healing over a hospital visit where anti-venom and airway support are standard for snakebite treatment.
- A local government doctor quoted in coverage said the child was never taken to a public facility and called the reliance on witchcraft fatal.
- Outlets also cite a similar 2024 case in Bulandshahr involving river submersion after a snakebite, pointing to a recurring pattern that health workers say needs urgent public awareness.