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By Express News Service
BHOPAL: Heavy rains and consequent swollen rivers causing casualties and loss of human lives are not new. However, in Madhya Pradesh’s largest district, Chhindwara, continued rains and a swollen Jam river turned out to be a saviour of human lives and a limiter of injuries inflicted by a centuries-old tradition of war of stones between two riverside villages.
The Gotmar Fair, which marks Bhadrapad Amavasya for the twin villages of Pandhurna and Sawargaon, happened on Friday. The tradition that falls on the 15th day of the Hindu month of Bhadrapad takes its origin in a local mythological tale of the killing of two lovers.
This year, however, continuous rains and a swelling Jam river, which separates the villages, seemed to have taken the sheen out of the annual stone-pelting war between the residents of the two villages. Compared to previous years when the number of those injured were anywhere between 200 and 400, the number of injured this year stood at just a few dozens, possibly 50-75.
According to a senior police officer camping in the area, even the magnitude of injuries were slight and not serious enough to be hospitalised, within the district or be rushed to neighbouring Nagpur in Maharashtra.“Just a few people, including a man aged between 60-70 years, had to be rendered treatment at the local hospital for injury caused by stones,” Chhindwara district police superintendent Vinayak Verma told this newspaper.
Around 55 mm of rainfall was recorded in Chhindwara district in 10 hours starting from 8.30 am in the morning. The sunrise-sunset war of stones between the residents of the two riverside villages was subsequently toned down due to heavy rains, the consequent rise in Jam river and additional measures by the local administration, including a ban on the use of gofan (slings used to shoot stones), closure of liquor shops since Thursday night and deployment of an SDERF team to prevent any mishaps in the swollen river.
Previously in 2022, while around 200 people were injured in the annual stone war (unconfirmed reports put the figure at 400-plus), around 4-5 had to be rushed in serious condition to a hospital in Nagpur for life-saving treatment. At least one of those persons whose life was saved by doctors in Nagpur had suffered a serious eye injury.
The annual sunrise-sunset war of stones forming part of the Gotmar Fair, which besides causing injuries to hundreds every year has also reportedly claimed around 15 lives since 1955. It owes its genesis to a mythological tale of two young lovers — the girl from Sawargaon and the boy from Pandhurna — killed in the Jam river after getting caught in stone-pelting by the residents of the two villages.
BHOPAL: Heavy rains and consequent swollen rivers causing casualties and loss of human lives are not new. However, in Madhya Pradesh’s largest district, Chhindwara, continued rains and a swollen Jam river turned out to be a saviour of human lives and a limiter of injuries inflicted by a centuries-old tradition of war of stones between two riverside villages.
The Gotmar Fair, which marks Bhadrapad Amavasya for the twin villages of Pandhurna and Sawargaon, happened on Friday. The tradition that falls on the 15th day of the Hindu month of Bhadrapad takes its origin in a local mythological tale of the killing of two lovers.
This year, however, continuous rains and a swelling Jam river, which separates the villages, seemed to have taken the sheen out of the annual stone-pelting war between the residents of the two villages. Compared to previous years when the number of those injured were anywhere between 200 and 400, the number of injured this year stood at just a few dozens, possibly 50-75.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
According to a senior police officer camping in the area, even the magnitude of injuries were slight and not serious enough to be hospitalised, within the district or be rushed to neighbouring Nagpur in Maharashtra.
“Just a few people, including a man aged between 60-70 years, had to be rendered treatment at the local hospital for injury caused by stones,” Chhindwara district police superintendent Vinayak Verma told this newspaper.
Around 55 mm of rainfall was recorded in Chhindwara district in 10 hours starting from 8.30 am in the morning. The sunrise-sunset war of stones between the residents of the two riverside villages was subsequently toned down due to heavy rains, the consequent rise in Jam river and additional measures by the local administration, including a ban on the use of gofan (slings used to shoot stones), closure of liquor shops since Thursday night and deployment of an SDERF team to prevent any mishaps in the swollen river.
Previously in 2022, while around 200 people were injured in the annual stone war (unconfirmed reports put the figure at 400-plus), around 4-5 had to be rushed in serious condition to a hospital in Nagpur for life-saving treatment. At least one of those persons whose life was saved by doctors in Nagpur had suffered a serious eye injury.
The annual sunrise-sunset war of stones forming part of the Gotmar Fair, which besides causing injuries to hundreds every year has also reportedly claimed around 15 lives since 1955. It owes its genesis to a mythological tale of two young lovers — the girl from Sawargaon and the boy from Pandhurna — killed in the Jam river after getting caught in stone-pelting by the residents of the two villages.
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