Ranchi, July 23 - Beautiful invitation cards, a feast for nearly 500 guests, a car for the groom and chanting of Sanskrit verses -- although all the usual customs were observed, this was an Indian wedding with a difference. Those tying the knot at the special event in Jharkhand's Chatra district were frogs.

Desperate residents of Simeria block in the drought-hit district, about 190 km from here, organised a wedding of frogs Wednesday to appease the rain gods.

'We believe that the rain god is appeased by the marriage of frogs. Now that the ceremony has been performed, we hope that the district, which has been facing droughts for the last four years, will get good rainfall,' said Vinod Bihari, a priest who conducted the marriage ceremony.

Seva Ram, a farmer, 'adopted' the female frog and performed the ritual of 'kanyadan'.