Cockfights are open secret here

Adilabad: Cockfights and gambling on them may be illegal in the district, but it is no secret that on the eve of Sankranti, cockfighters from bordering areas of Maharashtra and Adilabad set up fights. In villages along the river Pranahitha, in Kautala, Bejjur, Dahegoan, Kotapalli, Vemanpalli and Chennur mandals, the betting is brisk.

In January 2013, police arrested 19 persons who indulged in cockfights and betting and registered eight cases under bordering police stations in the above mandals.

Border villagers like Devulamarri, Bhori and Lagga in Aheri taluk of Gadchiroli are coming to border villages of Adilabad district, crossing the river Pranahitha, to set up the cockfights.

The villagers rear special cocks and feed them a special diet to prepare them.

K. Shankar of Dah-egoan said it was an open secret that cockfights take place in villages along the River Pranahitha on the eve of the Sankranti every year.

He said people involved do not think it is a serious crime as it is associated with a religious festival.

Villagers of Kautala, Dahegoan and Bejjur mandals go in groups along with their trained cocks to play cockfights in villages in the Rajoora taluk of Maharashtra.

The venue is sometimes the deep forests along the river, to escape the police.

There have been incidents where the cocks, their owners, and the gamblers have all been put behind bars. So intense is the betting that gamblers have ruined their families and gambled away their homes.

Though cockfights are held on other days as well in remote areas, they are most common before and after Sankranti.

A local leader from Kautala observed that cockfights are not a local tradition. “It was brought by migrants from Seemandhra. Cockfight betting is rampant only in areas where migrants settled,” he said.