Agricultural changes and weedicides reduce availability of traditional Bathukamma flowers

Traditional flowers used for Bathukamma are becoming harder to find in Telangana as irrigated cultivation expands and weedicides are sprayed more widely. Residents say flowers once gathered from fallow lands are now scarce, forcing people to seek alternatives or travel farther.

Sangareddy: The increased area under irrigation cultivation and spraying of weedicides put an end to the availability of the many flowers, which were traditionally used in Bathukmma over the years.

The flowers such as Tangedu, the state flower of Telangana, Gunugu Puvvu, Gaddi Puvvu, Voma Puvvu and several other flowers, which were found in fallow lands, left uncultivated for grazing the cattle, used to be found abundantly some two to three decades back.

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When the mechanisation of the agriculture and supply of irrigation water changed the pace of agriculture in Telangana, farmers had stopped rearing the cattle, which tremendously increased the area under cultivation and also paved the way for disappearance of the wild flowers found in the fallow lands.

These flowering plants used to survive on the bunds of agriculture fields to some extent post increase of irrigation water supply. However, the indiscriminate spraying of weedicides killed many such plants, forcing the women to shift to ornamental plants such as Banthi (Marigold), Chamanthi ( Chrysanthemum) and others while preparing Bathukamma.

Even the Gunugu flower, which was abundantly found in semi arid crops and fallow lands, is scarcely found now in the State. Some people have started travelling to long distances such as Karnataka to fetch Gungu flowers for Saddula Bathukamma, which is being celebrated across the State on Sunday.

The flowers used in Bathukamma had changed considerably due to changes in agriculture practices and the spraying of pesticides. Speaking to ‘Telangana Today’, Y Manjula (50), a resident of Sangareddy, said that they were all together using different flowers compared to the flowers she used during her childhood.