Punters in the East and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh are getting ready for rooster fights and betting on roosters in the coming festival season. The ban on the sport may not be taken seriously as the apex court allowed the return of roosters taken away by police as a precautionary measure.
On Friday, the Supreme Court stayed an Andhra Pradesh High Court order allowing joint teams of police and district administration to seize roosters primed for traditional fights conducted by farmers.
Punters started breeding roosters brought from Indonesia, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka six months ago, to make the sport fierier, and reportedly shifted their dens to interior areas.
There are five to six well known places in East and West Godavari districts, where this sport is organised.
Hundreds of people from Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala take part in it.
‘Advance received’
“We have already received advance from young software engineers of Hyderabad and Bengaluru to bet on roosters,” said Rama Rao, a punter. Demonetisation had no effect on rooster fights — it only affected the breeding of roosters. “Badam, pista and liquor rates have increased by 30 per cent. After the High Court ban, police took away roosters, on which we spent thousands of rupees,” he said.
In the Atreyapuram mandal, police formed teams to seize roosters from Pulidindi, Peravaram and Tadipudi villages and kept them in police stations. Following the Supreme Court order, the owners went to the police stations on Saturday and got back their roosters.
“We are strictly going by the High Court order [which has banned rooster fights]. We will also implement the apex court directions. We have formed groups in major villages and spoken to organisers. We have told them to stop the blood-sport,” said L. Ankaiah, DSP, Amalapuram.
Undeterred, the organisers are consulting pundits to fix muhurthams to start the fights. The muhurtham will be fixed with the help of astrological calendars like ‘Kukkuta Sastra,’ specially designed for roosters.
“Each rooster has a colour, name and star. We will decide the ‘muhurtham’, and send our roosters out,” said Venkatapati Raju.
