Cockfight betting likely to run into crores of rupees

Khammam: Preparations are underway in the Ashwaraopet constituency in the district to celebrate Sankranti festival on a grand scale and cock fights is one of the important programmes to be organized.

Organizing cock fights in all the mandals of Khamma district bordering Andhra Pradesh and Telangana districts has been an important tradition for several decades. People in the district say that those who do not organize cockfights lack manliness and courage.

People in the district used to raise cocks by feeding them in special farmhouses spending lakhs of rupees. Till the other day, the price of a fully grown cock used to range between Rs 200 to Rs 2,000. But now the prices have skyrocketed and they range anywhere between Rs 10,000 to Rs 60,000 as organizing cockfights has become a matter of prestige for the rich and powerful in the district.

The hundreds of cocks are being reared in palm oil gardens and they are fed with the most nutritious and costliest food like cashew nuts, badam, ragi, maize, groundnuts, dry kharjura fruit, jiggery, carrots and other nutritious food. The cocks are given bath with cold water early in the morning and they are made to swim. They are also given specially home made Ayurvedic medicines.

The cockfights are organized for three days during Sankranti as a traditional practice and those from the neighbouring villages come to the town for buying the cocks.

These cockfights are extremely popular in West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh where the rich and the powerful even spend crores of rupees in organizing the event.

There are cases in which those who lose in the cockfights after gambling and betting on them heavily ending up as paupers in the district but this does not deter the people in taking part in them in large numbers. There are people who made nearly Rs 63 lakhs profits and became rich. Although there are hundreds of varieties of cocks like Pachhakaki, Rasangi, Pingalalu, Kakidegaparla , Konga vagaru, Sita vaayi, Kaki pandu and Kodi dega, only 20 types of them are being used for cockfights. However, it remains to be seen whether police will give permission to hold the cockfights as the state government has decided to ban them.