Stakeholders gear up for cockfights in a big way

Fowls being trained for the blood sport in Krishna, East and West Godavari, and Guntur districts

Ticklish issue: A file photo of the cockfight at Pedapulipaka near Vijayawada.

Many villagers are preparing the ground to organise cockfights amid the harvest festival, ‘Sankranthi’, celebrations on a grand scale. The NRIs of the coastal districts — those settled in the U.S., Australia, Canada, the U.K., Singapore, Dubai and other countries — visit their native towns for the festival with their families and invest some crores of rupees on the blood sport.

Thousands of people take part in the fights and the lush green pastures would turn red with blood in the fierce battles. As usual, the animal lovers and the NGOs will approach the court urging a ban on the game. However, the local public representatives will organise the fights by managing some policemen. The police should swing into action from now, stop taming the fowls and identify the potential villages and spots for organising cockfights. But they tend to book cases against the accused under the AP Gaming Act and wash their hands off every year.

Rigorous training

Some locals tame different species such as ‘Kaki Dega’, “Nalli Kaki’, ‘Nemali’, ‘Tella Nemali’, ‘Dega’, ‘Tella Kaki’ which have good demand in the market. They will be served cashew, almond, mutton and even liquor.

“The cocks will be trained in maintaining stamina and defence and attacking techniques and would be given bath with hot water to win the game,” said G. Rambabu, a native of Kankipadu.

Some traders are doing good online trading by posting the photographs of the fowls in some e-commerce sites, quoting the prices, their phone numbers and addresses. The cost of each fowl ranges from ₹10,000 to ₹1 lakh. Punters and investors from Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Visakhapatnam and other places will invest huge amounts during the three-day harvest festival, also known as ‘Pedda Panduga’ (major festival) in the local parlance.

Grounds being prepared

The organisers will conduct the fights under floodlights. Liquor and cool drink shops, fast food centres, gambling, gundata and other games will be arranged at the sites. Experts in tying knives to the legs of the fowls will be ready at each place.

In West Godavari, the fights will be organised at I. Bhimavaram, Undi, Akiveedu, Tanuku, Veeravasaram, Palakol and Narasapuram areas and in East Godavari Razole, Shivakodu, Amalapuram, Jaggannapeta, P. Gannavaram, Ravulapalem and many other places are famous for it.. In Krishna district, Penamaluru, Kankipadu, Vuyyuru, Kalidindi, Kaikaluru, Mudinepalli, Poranki, Gudivada and other areas are known for the cockfights. The police registered more than 3,000 cases against the organisers last year. “It is a fact that we can control the banned game, if we can carry out continuous raids and stop taming of cocks in identified villages. Our officers should form teams and prevent taming and selling of fowls in advance,” a police officer said.