The majestic Ongole bull has long been the farmers’ favourite because of its draught power and disease-resistant characteristic.
But the docile animal, the much sought-after breed across the globe, including Brazil, has fallen from grace because the farmers, under constant pressure to cut costs, have switched over to tractors.
However, the one community that still rears the sturdy animal with passion in the villages close to the Nallamala forest for a living is the ‘Gangireddu’. Members of the community train the bulls handed over to them by farmers and the ones dedicated to temples by the villagers.
The nomadic people spend about six months in their native village training the cattle and the remaining months touring different parts of Andhra Pradesh and other States to exhibit the skills of the bulls.
Much against odds, the bull trainers feed and train the animals to do a variety of tricks such as stamping the master without hurting him and dancing to the tunes of dhol and shehnai played by the master to amuse the audience.
Each bull gains a weight of 800 kg as they feed the cattle with highly nutritive diet that includes palm dates, coconut, and horse gram, says expert bull trainer N. Kotaiah after a tiring training session at Nagallamudipi near Tarlupadu in Prakasam district.
His bulls won the first prize in the cattle show organised in Nellore recently. Mr. Kotaiah shows with pride the prize won.
Such is the passion for these animals that the bull trainers don’t milk the cows.
“We leave all the milk to the calves, especially the male ones, to get healthy bulls,” adds Pullaiah, another trainer in the village with 1,000 bulls.
Special feature
The special feature of the Ongole bull is that it attains maximum height and weight when they are reared in the land between Gundlakamma and Musi in the district, claims another bull trainer Veeraiah, who takes pride in taking the animals to cattle shows held at periodic intervals in Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Nellore.
Out of sheer love for the majestic bull, considered down the ages as the vehicle of Lord Mallanna, they rear it despite difficulties in view of shortage of fodder and other feed.
They want the government to supply fodder at a subsidised price as severe drought in the last three years has led to acute fodder and water scarcity.
Conduct of cattle shows and bull races will kindle interest in the bull trainers and farmers to rear the animals, they feel.
