Flower trail: Medak people cross border to get Gunuguu Puvvu from Karnataka

Sangareddy: The slow disappearance of the Gunugu (Celosia) flower, which used to be abundantly found in dry barren lands in Telangana, is seeing cross-border efforts to ensure that women in Telangana celebrate Bathukamma without any hindrance. Demand for the Gunugu flower, an inseparable component in celebrations of the Bathukamma festival, is seeing a huge number […]

Sangareddy: The slow disappearance of the Gunugu (Celosia) flower, which used to be abundantly found in dry barren lands in Telangana, is seeing cross-border efforts to ensure that women in Telangana celebrate Bathukamma without any hindrance.

Demand for the Gunugu flower, an inseparable component in celebrations of the Bathukamma festival, is seeing a huge number of villagers from Sangareddy, Medak and other nearby districts crossing the border into Karnataka to bring the flower back home in trucks. Some of the village Sarpanchs were arranging exclusive vehicles for their people to get truckloads of Gunugu flowers from Karnataka which they were in turn distributing to their women so that the festival is celebrated in a grand way.

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Speaking to Telangana Today, Sarpanch of Ramateertham village in Papannapet Mandal of Medak, Chandram Baba Goud said he had taken some 15 people in a truck to villages in Karnataka where the flower was found abundantly. After a few hours of harvesting, Goud said they managed to fill the truck with the Gunugu flowers. Not only Ramateertham, villagers from Minpur, Muddapuram, Narsingi and Papannapet were also seen getting the flower in the trucks on Wednesday. Apart from villagers, vendors, who plan to sell the flower in Hyderabad, Sangareddy, Medak and other urban areas, were also going in vehicles to Karnataka to get flowers. Some youngsters were also seen going on two-wheelers to Karnataka to get the flower. They were selling each bundle of of the flower at prices ranging from Rs.1,500 to Rs.2,000 in urban areas.

Another villager from Ramateertham, Chakali Raju said there used to be a lot of Gunugu Puvvu, a weed grown amid the dry land crops, some 10 years ago. However, the flower had almost disappeared as there was no barren land left in their area now, with most of the barren land being cultivated now. Since the people of Karnataka do not celebrate Bathukamma, they were looking with surprise at the villagers from Telangana coming in huge groups all the way to just to harvest and collect what they look upon as ‘weed’.