Indians rush to swallow live fish for health

Thousands of people jostled in Hyderabad to swallow medicine stuffed inside a live fish - a treatment believed to cure asthma and other respiratory ailments.

The Asthma medicine is a herbal formula placed inside a small fish and thrust into patients mouths which is celebrated as an annual event.



Since 1845, members of the Bathini Goud family have been performing the closely guarded medicinal ritual.

Patients have to buy a two-inch-long Murrel fish, and swallow it live after Bathinis stuff their secret herbal mixture inside its mouth.



The fish helps to clear the patient’s oesophagus as it makes its way down to the stomach, and later releases the medicine. It survives for about 15 minutes inside the body, and clears phlegm in the lungs as it flaps about.

The patients have to take the complete course of the treatment for four years continuously to get cured fully.