Asia's biggest tribal fair Medaram Jatara to begin today

Asia’s biggest biennial tribal fair – Sammakka-Saralamma Jatara –will begin at the forest village of Medaram in Jayashankar-Bhupalapalli district on Wednesday. The tribal festival ends on February 3. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will visit Medaram on February 2 and make an offering to the tribal deities – Sammakka and Saralamma.

Telangana government, which has declared Sammakka-Saralamma Jatara as a state festival, has made elaborate arrangements for the event. It has spent Rs 80.50 crore for providing amenities for the 1.25-crore pilgrims expected at the tribal fair.

The festival is preceded by elaborate tribal rituals. Tribal goddess Saralamma, daughter of Sammakka, ‘arrives’ at Medaram from Kannepally village on Wednesday along with tribal gods Pagididderaju and Govindaraju. The arrival of Saralamma heralds the Medaram Jatara.

Tribal priests will perform special rituals to Saralamma and put the goddess on a platform. On Thursday night, Sammakka will ‘arrive’ at the platform from Chilukalagutta. After the arrival of Sammakka, pilgrims will offer jiggery



(bangaram) blocks to the deities.Sammakka-Saralamma will stay on the platform for darshan for two days. On February 3, priests will take the deities back to their ‘dwelling place’ in the forest, marking the Jatara’s conclusion.

Vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu will accompany KCR to the tribal fair on February 2.

Jayashankar-Bhupalapalli district in-charge collector Karnan said revenue, endowment, excise, police, fire, medical and health departments have set up camps for pilgrims. Air-conditioned bus services would be run from Hyderabad to Medaram for the first time with advance booking facility.

For the first time, Bhupalapalli police have set up crowd control cameras along with CCTV cameras. The police will keep a watch on any sudden surge in crowd.

Deputy CM Kadiyam Srihari with three ministers, Mahendra Reddy, Indrakaran Reddy and Chandulal, visited Medaram and reviewed the amenities made by the government. Many pilgrims have been thronging the tiny village for the last 15 days to avoid the last-minute rush.