A leaking roof is the last thing on the mind of rural folk in Adilabad and the neighbouring districts when good rainfall greets them. Villagers, especially the aboriginal people, involve themselves in a host of activities, mostly to do with the search for a variety of food available only during monsoon.
Whenever there is a spell of heavy rainfall, all the agricultural activities come to a halt. The villagers have more time on their hand to indulge in fishing, catching crabs and searching for edible mushrooms during the rainy season.
The Kolam aboriginals, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group, scattered across Adilabad, Kumram Bheem Asifabad, Mancherial and Nirmal districts love fish and crabs. The water flowing down the hills surrounding their habitations which often fills up the local water bodies, is where they go fishing for.
The Adivasis fish with sarees and any other material available at home. They also use fishing nets, but rarely so.
The excess water that runs off the hills brings with it a lot of fish that remain in the tanks or even the paddy fields that are in its path. It is in the shallow paddy fields and other water bodies that the fish are caught easily.
Children move along the rivulets and streams in search of crabs. They use crude methods to catch crabs that the rural people relish.
The tribal children also go into the forest close to their habitations in search of edible mushrooms. The mushrooms are dwindling inside the forest with land getting polluted owing to use of excess chemicals in agriculture.
When not out of their home, the villagers prefer eating the dried-up Mahua flowers stored during summer. Every tribal home has sufficient quantity of these dried-up flowers.
The month of Shravan as per the Hindu calendar also heralds the stilt-walking season for aboriginal children here. Khodang are the stilts made of bamboo and used by children to walk in the generally slushy surroundings thereby protecting themselves from seasonal diseases.
