The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Festivities in the forest

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Tuesday, Jun 17, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Festivities in the forest

D. Chandra Bhaskar Rao

With the arrival of the monsoon it’s celebration time for tribal communities living in the forest villages of Khammam

— Photo: G.N. Rao

ANNUAL RITUAL: Tribes celebrating ‘Bhoomi Panduga’ at Pusuguppa village in Khammam district.

BHADRACHALAM: The dark skies open up as the lightning strikes. Soon the showers drench the hills spreading fragrance from the moistened earth and there is spontaneous joy all around.

The tribal communities -- Koyas and Kondareddies -- living in the forest villages of Khammam are immersed in festivities. The monsoon has arrived. The hillside echoes to the ethnic melody with the tribal belles dancing to the drumbeats while singing ‘rela… rela…’

They are celebrating Bhoomi Panduga -- an event laden with religious significance. It is time for worship of the rain god and Mother Earth. In a way it is a ceremonial prayer thanking the deities for reviving the flow of water in the streams.

Important event

Every family takes part in the ceremony without fail as it is considered an important event before starting farm operations for the year. Those who miss it merit no privileged participation in the religious events that follow during the season.

They even get isolated in the clan.

The revellers throng the roads and block the vehicular traffic on the forest route. They collect ‘toll’ from the road users, especially operators of heavy vehicles. “It is not for the sake of money. It endorses our hegemony over the forests and the forest routes. The money collected is spent on the community needs during the celebrations,” said Soyam Bojji of Katukapalli village.

Hunting

All the men -- young and old -- armed with bows and arrows spend a day or two in the jungle scouting the wild.

As they return from the forest, they are welcomed as heroes. But hunting is now too difficult a task. Even if one devotes a week on the mission, it may end up without finding even a single prey, thanks to the rapid depletion of the green cover, says Sondu Veeraiah, a tribal leader of the Adivasi Samkshema Parishad.

The festival is also losing its importance because of the curbs on hunting even by the tribes.

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