A record 1.4 crore people turned up at Medaram village in Dandakaraneeya forest of Eastern Telangana region for Asia’s biggest Tribal festival Samakka-Saralamma Jatara. The four day long festival, which brought tribals from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, had turned the area on the banks of Jampanna river into a sea of humanity.
The Jatara, which was attended by the vice president of India M Venkaiah Naidu, Chief Ministers of Telangana and Chhattisgarh K Chandrasekhar Rao and Raman Singh among others, rounded off last evening with the traiditonal Vanaparvesam or the return of tribal deities to their permanent places of residence in deep forest.
The deities were brought down from interior hilly areas by the priests on January 31 when the annual Jatara had begun and were taken back last evening amid the beating of drums and the tribal dances. The deity Sarlamma was taken back in a procession to Chilukalagutta and Saralamma wa takn to Kaneepalle village.
While weighing oneself in jiggery by the devotees and presenting it to the deities was the highlight of the rituals tribal devotees also performed sacrificed of an estimated 20 lakh poultry birds which they have brought with them.
With such a massive rush within four days posed a big challenge to the administration which made arrangements in a radius of 30 kms for the accommodation and smooth flow of the pilgrims. Officials and visitors said that laying of a new road and construction of a bridge had eased the flow of the pilgrims and helped the organisers in accommodating more people.
Telangana State Road Transport Corporation alone ran 34000 buses transporting more than a million people. Other relied on their own modes of transport ranging from two wheelers and three wheelers to vans and buses. Many preferred to walk to avoid the vehicular traffic.
Chief Minister KCR, during his visit to Jaatra along with the Vice President announced Rs 200 crore to create permanent facilities for the Jaatra over an area of 200 acres.
Now as the pilgrims have started returning from Medaram the biggest challenge before the administration was cleaning up the area including the remains of the poultry birds and heaps of jiggery. As the flies and mosquitos raid the area, there were fears outbreak of diseases if the garbage spread over an area of 30 kms was not cleared immediately.
Apart from open spaces the fields in the surroundings of Medaram were also littered by the garbage including polythene bags and the plastic bottles.