A BABY cow born with human-like facial features is being hailed as a god in India, with thousands of worshippers flocking to see the animal and plans to build a temple in its honour.
Although the cow died within an hour of its birth, news quickly spread and led thousands of people to flock to see the body, believing it to be an avatar of Lord Vishnu, a Hindu God.
The calf has been placed in a glass box surrounded by flowers, and video shows worshippers bowing to the carcus as they pass by.
Hindus in the city of Muzaffarnagar, northern India, believe the calf is the ‘Gokaran’, 24 incarnations of Lord Vishnu.
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Mahesh Kathuria, 50, a local businessman who came to see the calf, said: "God has taken birth from the body of a local cow.
"We came here to seek his blessings.
"Religiously, it is an avatar of Vishnu. We believe it’s a similar character mentioned in Bhagavata Puran, a Hindu religious text."
Raja Bhaiya Mishra, 55, the manager of the cow shelter, said: "It’s a miracle that the calf was born in this shelter. Thousands of people have been here to see it.
"We will be cremating him in three days and a temple will be built for him. This avatar has most definitely created a devotion feeling amongst the people.’
He added that the mother was rescued from a butcher and was brought to the shelter six months ago before she fell pregnant.
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Unsurprisngly, the scientific community has dismissed the "miracle".
"If a gene didn’t develop properly or there was a fault, it causes multiple structural deformities, and such anomalies happen.
"It has got only scientific reasons and explanations, there’s no superstitions here."
