Apart from the usual challenges of making a decent living, young men from Gudatipally village in Telangana’s Siddipet district are faced with a unique problem: they cannot find girls to marry. The reason? None of them have a convincing answer to a simple question from the father of the bride: ‘Where will my daughter live after marriage?’
Gudatipally, which has 800 houses and a population of 4,000, will be submerged when the Gouravelli reservoir comes up in the Akkennapeta mandal under the Husbanad revenue division.
Talks break down
“I have five acres of land which has been in my father’s name for a long time. My parents have been looking for a bride for me for the past one year. There is always initial interest, but the talks inevitably break down when the bride’s family discovers that there is no clarity on where and how their daughter will be living after marriage,” says Singireddy Nikhil Reddy, a young farmer. There are many like him in Gudatipally. According to Anjeti Tirupati Reddy, another resident, the village saw only six marriages in the last two years. The brides were from financially weak families who could not offer dowry and only barely managed to carry out the wedding ceremonies, he added.
It is estimated that in the village’s Reddy community alone, there were about 35 bachelors. “I have friends in other communities as well and I hear the same problems from them,” said Nalla Mahender Reddy, another villager.
According to D. Shankar Kumar, Revenue Divisional Officer, Husnabad, in addition to Gudatipally, Somaji Tanda village, with 109 houses, will be submerged. Complaints of difficulty in finding brides had also been voiced by many villagers whose homes were submerged under the Mallannasagar and Kondapochamma reservoirs. The capacity of the Gouravelli reservoir will be 8.23 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft). Scheduled to be completed by December 2018, it is expected to irrigate about 1.25 lakh acres in Jangam, Siddipet, Warangal and Karimnagar districts.
