Saturday, October 29, 2016

Childless pray to Ethmasarpen

Childless Adivasi couples and newly married are making a beeline to the Ethmasarpen during the Gussadi festival with a prayer seeking children.Their prayers are heard, they would name their children after Ethmasarpen.

Gussadi caps made of peacock feathers, traditional musical instruments such as  Thudum, Dappu, Vetti, Parra, Peti, Gummela and Kodal to be used in Gussadi- Dandari, Kolatam dances, Tamasha ( skits) together are called Ethmasarpen.

Padmalpurikako temple, which is considered to be the birthplace of Ethmsarpen, is located on the banks of river Godavari at Gudirevu in Dandepalli mandal in Mancherial district. Adivasis perform special pujas to the Ethmasarpen at Padmalpurikako temple.

Couples blessed with child pray to Ethmasarpen by laying their newborns in front of the Gussadi caps and musical instruments that are Ethmasarpen.

Name Ethma Bai and Ethmarao are commonly among the Adivasis, which came into existence with the tradition to name children after Ethmasarpen.

The Adivasis couple blessed with the child fulfill their vow to the Ethmasarpen during the Gussadi or Dandari festival they celebrate in connection with the Diwali, Adivasi leader Sidam Shambu of Mthdiguda  in Utnoor mandal said.

The couple blessed with child celebrates the Gussadi or Dandari with much enthusiasm, devotion by keeping faith in Ethmasarpen.

Sidam Sudhakar of Mathadiguda said ‘they were blessed with male baby by Ethmasarpen in October 2015 and added that Ethmasarpen is powerful God.

Generally, the Gussadi or Dandari will be organized by the local village Patel ( headman of the Adivasi gudem) and arrange the feast for the villagers  and bear the expenditure incur for the celebration.

A goat or hens will be sacrificed to appease the Ethmasarpen r as part of the fulfilling the vows by the villagers during the Gussadi or Dandari festival.  


Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Farmers keep date with tradition before harvest

 Ramanaveni Laxmi is offering puja in her cotton field 
Following the age-old tradition, farmers today also boil milk and letting it overflow before starting the process to pick the cotton during the harvest season in their agriculture fields in North Telangana districts.

Farmers boil the milk and let it overflow onto the ground wishing the high cotton yield like overflow milk and use the milk similar to that of cotton.  

They then drop five cotton bolls in the remaining milk in the pot. This is the traditional way of offering Naivedyam to the god before start cotton picking.

The farmers put up five stones calling them as Panchapandavulu with white wash at the place where they offer traditional puja in the cotton fields.

Ramanaveni Laxmi of Kumari village in Neredigonda said they perform special puja in the cotton field before they start cotton picking and generally they start picking on an auspicious Panchami or Navami days or Sunday, Thursday or Fridays.

She said they take pure milk in a small pot to the cotton field and boil the bilk till it overflows onto the ground, wishing that the cotton yield would also overflow in that season. Generally, farmers break the coconut as part of the puja and apply turmeric and vermilion to the stones.

Sangepu Borranna of Gaurapur village Indravelli mandal said the tradition of boiling milk and letting it overflow (Palu Ponginchadam) can be seen in house warming ceremony and the same is practiced before cotton picking starts.

"Adivasis do not pluck the vegetables they raised without performing a traditional puja in the agriculture field", he said and added that Adivasis cook the curry with the vegetables borrowed from the neighboring non- tribal farmers’.

"The Adivasi eat the food with that curry prepared in the field before they start plucking the vegetables such as tomato, Mirchi, lady-finger and brinjal", Borranna said.     




Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Traditional Adivasi cuisine a big hit with non- tribals

 Gaarkhang prepared by Adivasi women  
Adivasi’s cuisine s has become popular among the non-tribals, and culinary items sell well during  special occasions
.
Adivasi women preparing popular snacks are a common sight during festivals and Jataras at Indramai temple in Indravelli, Nagoba temple at Keslapur in Indravelli, Jangubai temple on the state borders. 

Gaarkhang (garelu) made of a paste of urad dal and moong dal is a popular snack and  made especially during the Adivasis festivals. Gaarkhang is prepared by giving shape to the dal paste on the palm and roasted on the pan without oil.   

Ms  Madavi Neelabai of Lakkaram village in Utnoor mandal said she prepares gaarkang with passion as it is offered as Naivedyam to their traditional gods and goddess. They eat pulses or any other agriculture produce after harvest only after offering them to the gods.

She said there is sanctity attached to the gaarkhang. They prepare special snacks like bajjilu or mirchi with their traditional pulses.

Mr Bandari Satish of Adilabad town who ate gaarkhang at Jodeghat said the snack was tasty though oil was not used. He said that non- tribal use more oil in preparing curries and snacks unlike Adivasis. Reducing the use of edible oil in preparing curries and snacks is the need of the hour.

The Adivasi women say they make the dal paste using traditional grinding methods instead of a grinder. They say therein lies the taste of snacks made the traditional way.

The non- tribals enjoyed the Adivasis’ traditional cuisine put up during the food festivals at ‘Giri Ustav’ at Utnoor and at Jodeghat on the occasion of  76th death anniversary of Kumram Bheem.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Polo to be developed at Jodeghat

An Adivasi horse rider performing a show  
The plateau on the hills around the historical Jodeghat in Asifabad district will be developed as a ground for Polo game which was a popular game playing with a ball and stick while riding a horse in ordered to develop the area as best tourist place to attract the tourists from across the world.

Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation Chairman Pervaram Ramulu said the series of beautiful hills with huge plateau area is much suitable for Polo game and Adivasis used to ride horses in the past as a warrior and horse are symbolic to the war and that of Polo game. He observed the hilly area is more suitable for the adventure sports.

Pervaram Ramulu said the hill area look like Kullu Manali in Himachal Pradesh but here in Jodeghat there will not snow falling like Kullu Manali.

He said Jodeghat is a battlefield and Adivasi legendary Kumram Bheem laid his life fighting with Nizam forces for the Jal, Jangal, and Jameen and described the Kumram Bheem as a real hero.

He said he examined the Jodeghat area when he was a top police officer and even traveled by road and knew the weather conditions of the area.

Pervaram Ramulu promised to give jobs to the local Adivasi unemployed youth to be created in the process of developing the Jodeghat area as best tourist place under Telangana Tourism Corporation and added that nearly 1,000 jobs could be created in the project.

He observed that four months from April to July are not suitable for the tourism at Jodeghat while August to February months suitable to conduct adventure sports to attract the tourists from across the world.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Agri lands going into feudal hands

The valuable agriculture lands are going into the hands of the feudal lords in and around the Nirmal and Mancherial towns in the wake of the creation of new districts. 

These agriculture lands will be converted into plots or to be used for the construction of apartments.

The landlords and political leaders have been purchased hundreds of acres of lands  since Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao announced the creation of Nirmal, Mancherial a few days ago and now Asifabad district.

Land transactions in crores of rupees took place in Mancherial and Nirmal towns and subsequently land registrations and this was quite visible.

According to reports, land transactions picked up in and around the Asifabad town and local businessmen and political leaders were busy in purchasing lands since Asifabad was announced as a new district.

Businessmen are targeting the distressed farmers eyeing their lands and purchasing their lands by offering some hiked prices. Political leaders purchased agriculture lands for future purposes in Mamada, Laxmanchanda, Dilawarpur, Khanapur, Sarangapur, Neredigonda mandals which share borders with Nirmal town.

Same is the case with the Mancherial district. The land transaction is high in Jaipur,Luxettipet and Mandamarri mandals sharing borders with the Mancherial town. Land value rose abnormally in Jaipur mandal with eth establishment of the Singreni thermal power project.

If one goes by the records of landholdings, even today traditional landlord communities were dominant in and around the Mancherial and Nirmal areas and owned big tracts of agriculture lands and invested in real estate ventures on the outskirts of these towns.

Traditional feudal communities are strong politically and economically and now they are getting strengthened with the real estate boom created by the new districts. These feudal forces have been controlling the sand mining and timber smuggling for long time in the Adilabad district.  

The feudal communities have faced a setback with the increased Naxal activities in the Adilabad district till 2004 when the then Congress government led by late YS. Rajasekhar Reddy held talks with the Naxalites in the United Andhra Pradesh.
Naxals activities gradually decreased during a Telangana agitation and now their activities are nominal and confined to few packets along the river Pranahitha and Godavari.

A senior political leader of CPI( M) said feudal forces regained ground with Telangana agitation and now are in a position to control the economic and political activity in the new districts Mancherial and Nirmal.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

New districts: encroachments intact

The municipal and revenue officials have failed to remove encroachments in the new to- be- created districts Mancherial and Nirmal while municipal officials removing few encroachments in Adilabad and Kagaznagar.

There is a shortage of government buildings to accommodate new offices in the Nirmal and Mancherial districts and some government educational institutions were taken over to accommodate government offices there.

These towns were also facing a shortage of government lands for the construction of new buildings for government offices in the new districts.This shows the failure of the officials in preserving government lands to serve the public interest.     

The land prices are skyrocketing in the Mancherial and Nirmal towns and these towns are experiencing real estate boom in the wake of the creation of new districts.
Land grabbers and encroachers are on the prowl eyeing on government lands worth crores of rupees.

There are strong allegations that municipal and revenue officials indirectly extending support to the land encroachers who had political patronage.

Revenue officials are playing a crucial role on various accounts in setting up new districts. There are strong corruption allegations against the top revenue officials in the Mancherial and Nirmal.

Adilabad municipal authorities have started dismantling the buildings constructed encroached on nalas, local tanks and government assigned lands. Municipal officials have failed to initiate action for clearing encroachments and restoring the valuable government lands from the clutches of the land grabbers.

It is surprising to note that roads are being laid into the Dharmasagar tank to make way in the Nirmal town. Municipal, revenue and agriculture officials have failed to prevent such efforts made by the encroachers and become mere spectators. 

It is surprising that new encroachments are coming up unabatedly instead of being removing the old ones.
Some fishermen of the Budawarpet have stopped the encroachers dumping soil by the excavator on the Shikam land of Dharmasagar tank on Thursday. 

Already a portion of Dharmasagar tank was encroached as the tank was adjacent to the main road and close to the bus stand where the land value was in crores after Nirmal declared as a new district.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Asifabad to be named after Kumram Bheem

Kumram Bheem 
In the changed political scenario, Asifabad district will be named after Adivasi legendary Kumram Bheem instead of Mancherial as Asifabad will have more tribal mandals.

Adivasi culture was concentrated in and around the Asifabad. Adivasis ruled the Asifabad and Sirpur (T) area before the 18th Century and there was Adivasi dynasty in that area.

Kumram Bheem fought against Nizam forces for self-rule on 12 villages and for Jal ,Jangal and Jameen.

Historical Jodeghat is close to the Asifabad and Kumram Bheem was died fighting with the Nizam’s forces at Jodeghat in Kerameri mandal on September1,1940 and postmortem was conducted to Komuram Bheem’s body at Government hospital in Asifabad.                       

People of Asifabad and its surrounding areas are jubilant in mood and celebrated the news that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has decided to create new district with Asifabad its headquarters.

Adivasis were not happy naming the Mancherial district after Kumram Bheem as there was less number of Adivasis population and Adivasis’ culture and traditions are not prevalent in Mancherial like in Asifabad and Utnoor areas.

Asifabad MLA Kova Laxmi thanked the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for considering the proposal for creation of Asifabad as new district and added that the interior tribal areas in the Constituency will be developed and Adivasi’s culture and traditions will be protected and will be carry forward to new generations.   

Freedom fighter and Telangana protagonist late Konda Laxman Bapuji first contested on Congress party ticket as MLA from the Asifabad Assembly Constituency of Adilabad district in 1952. He was native of Wankidi mandal headquarters and just 20 km from Asifabad in Adilabad district.

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Spurt in cardiac-related ailments

2 D Echo machine use in diagnosis for cardiac problems 
Cardiac problems are on the rise in the Adilabad district, most of which are attributed to smoking, alcoholism, junk food, hypertension and working long hours in the same place.

Alcohol consumption is rampant in the Adilabad district and district has topped in the liquor sales in the state. The sale of cheap liquor, Gudumba (illicitly distilled liquor), spurious toddy is also high in the Adilabad shares borders with the Maharashtra.           

The habit of chewing tobacco and smoking beedi is predominant among the Adivasis and a section of people in the district.

According to official sources, people of Adilabad have consumed all kinds of liquor worth Rs 573 crore in the year 2014-15 and Rs 715 crore in 2015-16.      

Medical experts say that people are eating more food containing high levels of carbohydrates leads to cardiac related health problems especially with the changed life styles unlike in the past.

It is found that some of the people not doing any physical work and having sedentary lifestyles are at higher risk.

According to medical experts, the number of patients suffering from cardiac-related health problem and being treated at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Science (RIMS), Adilabad has increased in the last one year.

Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (ICCU) which was established at RIMS witnessing  several patients suffering from cardiac problems and the number of deaths has increased.

Some of the elderly persons suffering from cardiac problems coupled with the respiratory problems such as Asthma were at heightened risk.
Cardiologist Dr. Anjani Kiranmayi is now supervising the ICCU at RIMS and attending the patients. A 2D Echo unit has been set up attached to the ICCU for a speedy diagnosis.

An awareness health camp was organized for the senior citizens about the cardiac related health problems and how to avoid them by taking some precautions. Screening tests conducted to outpatients suffering from cardiac-related health problems at RIMS.