BENGALURU: For members of the Gangireddollus tribe, a typical day starts early in the morning. They walk the streets along with their decorated bulls, collecting alms to get them through the day. However now, with the lockdown in place, these nomads -- around 200 of them from Andhra Pradesh who live in huts between Hosakerehalli and Rajarajeshwari Nagar -- are worried about how they’ll earn a livelihood.

While most members of the tribe were landowners in their home towns, severe drought forced them to leave their villages in search of a better life in Bengaluru. They say their bulls are not the regular ones -- they can respond to questions by nodding their heads and are trained to ‘dance’ to the tunes of the nadaswara and dollu, played by the tribe members. The bulls and their owners go home to home, where the animals ‘answer’ questions about the residents of a particular home. 

This cultural practice is known as Kole Basava in parts of Karnataka. Now, tribe members aren’t allowed to move around, which means they aren’t able to get food either. Gowramma, a member of the tribe, says, “Sometimes, kind people get us food packets. We want to be able to get groceries so we can cook for ourselves.”

Their main concern, however, is how to feed their beloved animals. “We can manage, but there is no grass or fodder for our bulls. We have around 50 bulls. Earlier, we would take them near the NICE junction for grazing, but now police are not letting us move. We need someone to help us get grass for our bulls,’’ says Subbamma.Some of the men would play the nadaswara at weddings and other functions for money, but this has stopped too.