WARANGAL: As the number of pilgrims making a beeline to the ancient tribal festival increasing with each passing year, elders and tribal lore experts loathe the fast changing culture and even the environs of the jatara site.

It is essentially a tribal festival, where they pay homage to two martyrs - Sammakka and Sarakka -- who went down fighting the imperial forces of Kakatiya ruler Prathapa Rudra-II eight centuries ago.

The tribals spread all over - Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka - turn up for the festival, where they pay their obeisance to their gods.

In the olden days, devotees used to come by bullocks making their way through dense forests. They used to camp for a week at Medaram residing in temporary sheds.

Notwithstanding the claims and counterclaims over the arrangements, the tribals hardly bother about facilities.

Safety, prosperity

Of late, it is non-tribals who grew in numbers and complain about amenities. "For most of the non-tribals, the jatara means eating, drinking and dancing. But, it is not. We highly revere Sammakka and Sarakka and we pray them for our safety and prosperity," said a septuagenarian A. Laxmi of Vengalapur village near Medaram.

Dean, School of Folk and Tribal lore, Telugu University, Bakthavatsala Reddy said the jatara was slowly losing its glory with construction of bridge across the Jampanna vagu, construction of thousands of toilets and several hundreds of water taps.

"With the people growing in number, we are felling down forest to facilitate them. A time will come when people would say that once the jatara used to be held in a forest," he said.

In this remote village tucked in deep jungle, the jatara brings everything in large scale. New generators, brand new buses, countless number of electric bulbs and even a helicopter, which perhaps, many tribals never knew. And one can imagine the conditions that prevail soon after the jatara ends.

Medaram and its surrounding villages stink unbearably making lives of poor miserable. The squalor left behind by millions of people takes about 10 days for the staff of various Government agencies to clean.

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