Cockfight centres near Telangana border villages

Khammam/Kothagudem: All roads led to the cockfight centres in Andhra Pradesh on Friday. An estimated 20,000 people from five mandals of Khammam and Bhadradri-Kothagudem districts crossed the state boundary to watch and bet on the cockfight in Andhra Pradesh villages.

As per one estimate, about Rs5 crore from mandals such as Aswaraopet and Dammapet in Bhadradri district and Sattupalli, Vemsoor and Penuballi in Khammam district changed hands during the cockfight held in West Godavari and Krishna districts. Punters and enthusiasts reached the spots by their two-wheelers and cars.

Farmer Adapa Lachaiah Dora of Mandalapali said, “The locals of Dammapet mandal started going to the border villages in West Godavari and Krishna districts to do the betting. Some carried with them their own ‘Pandem Kollu’ (fighter cocks).

A post-harvest festival, cockfight is a form of entertainment to farmers who liberally spend from money they earned from farms.

The Telangana state government did not entertain the cockfight in its border this year too. This prompted cockfight-lovers to cross the border and reach out to AP villages. Leaders like former DCCB chairman Muvva Vijay Babu and former MP P Srinivas Reddy watched the cockfights at Kondalraopalem in West Godavari. Aswaraopet MLA Mecha Nageswara Rao was present at an event near Tiruvuru.

The organisers in Kondalraopalem engaged bouncers from Hyderabad to clear the traffic and extend protection to the VIPs. There was traffic jam for the distance of a kilometer as hundreds of cars came in. Comprising also the high-end vehicles like Audi, Benz, Range Rover and Fortuner, the presence of so many vehicles on the road was an attraction by itself to the local crowds.

Asodu Venkateswara Rao, an LIC agent in Vemsoor, said, “The people felt boredom for the last ten months due to the Covid-19 social curbs and the lockdown. They chose the cockfight now to get some relief from such stress.”