分类： bharat

Indian village marks end of Diwali with massive cow poo fight

Joyful crowds have pelted each other with fistfuls of cow manure as part of one village’s local ritual to mark the end of Diwali, India’s most important Hindu festival.

Similar to Spain’s La Tomatina festival — the eccentric tomato-hurling celebration — residents of Gumatapura instead fling snowball-sized wads of bovine poo.

The Gorehabba festival on Saturday began with the afternoon collection of “ammunition” from cow-owning homes in the village, which lies on the border of the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The manure was brought to the local temple on tractor trolleys, before a priest performed a blessing ritual.

After that, the dung was dumped in an open area — with men and boys wading in to prepare their weapons for the battle ahead.

People flock to Gumatapura from far-flung cities each year, and for those in attendance, the messy battle is as much about fun as it is about the perceived health benefits.

“If they have a disease, it will get cured,” said Mahesh, a farmer at Saturday’s festival.

Some Hindus believe cows and everything they produce is sacred and purifying.

Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed for greater protection of the animals, and many Indian states have long banned their slaughter for meat.

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Residents Of This Tamil Nadu Village Bid Adieu To Diwali By Throwing Cow Dung At Each Other

Joyful crowds pelt each other with fistfuls of cow manure this weekend as part of one village’s local ritual to mark the end of Diwali.

Similar to Spain’s “La Tomatina” — the eccentric tomato-hurling celebration of the local fruit — residents of Gumatapura instead fling snowball-sized wads of a more earthy variety.

The Gorehabba festival begins with the afternoon collection of “ammunition” from cow-owning homes in the village, which lies on the border of the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The air quality in the national capital improved slightly on Saturday due to higher wind speed.
Still, the overall AQI of Delhi was 449 in the severe category at 8 am on Saturday, a small improvement from the 462 a day earlier.
The overall AQI was at 533 at 6 am and is predicted to improve as the day progresses.

Worst Diwali air since 2015
According to reports, the 462 AQI on Friday was the worst AQI the city has seen the day after Diwali since monitoring began in 2015. Delhi also recorded the sharpest deterioration in AQI since 2015, from the day before Diwali (AQI 314 ) to the day after.

Unfavourable weather conditions
Experts said the air quality degraded to severe in Delhi-NCR due to unfavourable weather conditions calm winds, low temperature and low mixing height and a poisonous cocktail of emissions from firecrackers, stubble burning and local sources.
Many residents, including young students were extremely vocal about the problem caused by pollution and the efforts to tackle it.
“Earlier, we did not get tired while cycling after a short time. But now with such levels of pollution, we get tired. It causes pain and a burning sensation in the lungs. It causes a lot of breathlessness. Visibility is also low because of pollution. Bursting firecrackers is a cause of it, they were used in spite of a ban. Pollution control is dependent on the conduct of people, how they follow instructions of the government,” Gaurav, a student said.

A thick blanket of smog engulfed New Delhi, the Indian capital, following Diwali celebrations over the weekend during which people set off huge quantities of fireworks.

Delhi, which is already considered among the most polluted cities in the world by World Health Organization, has been struggling with bad air quality. In an interview with AFP, Gufran Beig, India’s chief scientist at the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research, said pollutants in Delhi air rose nearly 10 times above the normal level on Monday. “Almost 60-70% of the smoke came from the firecrackers,” he said.