BHUBANESWAR: Shaken by March 2 killing of a college girl during a practice of witchcraft in Jharsuguda district , the state Crime Branch (CB) has decided to launch awareness campaigns in least 80 tribal villages in Mayurbhanj, Nabarangapur, Keonjhar, Rayagada and Ganjam districts that are vulnerable to the social evil.As witch-hunt and superstition related atrocities continued unabated in interior pockets in the state, the Crime Branch is also fine-tuning an action plan that will be submitted to the national human rights commission (NHRC) within three months. The NHRC recently asked the state government to furnish a report on steps taken by the police to curb witch-hunt after a number of international NGOs wrote to the rights panel, expressing concern over the superstitious practice."We are alert to the situation and have been initiating measures to deal with such crime. Since such practices have been occurring due to ignorance of gullible people in interior pockets, we will educate them with the help of panchayati raj institutions, school teachers and NGOs. We organised sensitisation programmes in the past as well," said special director general (Crime) B K Sharma.National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) placed Odisha in second place after Jharkhand in witnessing the bizarre practice in the modern society. While Jharkhand topped the country by reporting 32 murders due to witch-practice in 2015, Odisha witnessed 26 murders the same year, the NCRB data revealed. In all cases, they were killed after being branded as witches.Shockingly, Odisha continues to remain second in the country for the past few years in terms of registering murders arising from witchcraft. This, despite promulgation of Odisha Prevention of Witch Hunting Act in 2013 to check witchcraft.Experts attributed the reason of prevalence of witchcraft to lack of education among tribals and poor developmental activities in their areas. "In rural areas, instances of women facing humiliation and brutalisation after being branded as witches are common. In many cases, men were also attacked and killed after being branded as witches. The practice of sorcery, a type of witchcraft, is to identify the witches and prescribe cure for different troubles and diseases which often ended in murders. It keeps on happening as the government has failed to bring development in tribal pockets," said lawyer Bibhu Prasad Tripathy.2015: 26 deaths2014: 32 deaths2013: 24 deaths2012: 32 deaths2011: 39 deaths2010: 31 deaths

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