The funerary rites of a dead person is only complete when the person performing the last rites pays offering to a cow, a dog and crow. There are slight variations in this ritual. In South India , especially in Kerala, the offering is only made to a crow. As of now, there is no dearth in the crow population in Kerala. But the situation is different in several cities in North India . Cows and dogs are available readily but not crows. So people pays offering to crow idols. Zeenews reports about the dwindling population of crows in Allahabad : "As a ritual for the ancestors we are supposed to feed a cow, a dog and a crow. Cow and dog are easily available but we could not find a crow. So we had to observe the tradition with the idol of a crow. That will fulfill the absence in the ritual," said Gautam Chandra Golcha, who performed the rituals with the idol of the crow. The reason: "Crows are dwindling because they feed on the animals who feed