Sheep-fights Introduced In Addition To Cockfights For Sankranti In AP

Hyderabad: The three-day Sankranti festival celebrations were kicked off amidst traditional gaiety all over Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on Friday. People living in cities and other places reached their native villages and towns to celebrate the festival with families.

The old and young alike gathered around the Bhogi bonfire lit at junctions in a traditional way in villages and the women folk decked the house fronts with colorful Rangoli.

In AP, people are more involved in cockfights in village playgrounds while Telanganaites are spending time flying kites.

Kite enthusiasts from 17 countries enthralled huge audience at International Kite Festival inaugurated by Telangana Tourism Minister Azmeera Chandulal at People's Plaza in Hyderabad.

The International Kite Festival of Telangana was off to a soaring start with a range of flying objects in the sky on Thursday at People’s Plaza. Kitai Rhee and Kang Man Lee from South Korea held the huge audience enthralled with their dozens of kites strung on a single thread doing various tricks and people watched in amazement the robotic kites taking off into the sky.

Flown by a team of eight members from Singapore, the kites were remote-controlled with flashing LEDs placed at key locations.

“The smaller kites weigh 200 gms while the bigger dragon kite weighs 500 gms. These are different from drones as they have propellers while we use parts of the kite to manoeuvre them in the sky using remote controls,” said Michael Lim, who heads the team of goflykite.com.

For the hundreds of people who thronged the area, the kites trailing and flashing LED lights were a sight to watch as they moved in synchrony and performed aerobatics as Mr. Lim’s team members used the gimbals to control their movement.

After being inaugurated by Telangana Tourism Minister Azmeera Chandulal, the kite festival moved to Aga Khan Academy on the outskirts of the city where it will continue for three days started Friday.

BJP conducted its own kite festival at People’s Plaze. Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, MLA Chintala Ramachandra Reddy participated in the festival.

Kite Festival at Yadagirigutta

On January 16, the kite enthusiasts would take the festival to Yadagirigutta and on January 17, it would be held in Warangal.

Chandrababu Plays Karra-Billa, Golilata

AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu participated in traditional games at A1 Convention Center in Vijayawada by playing Karra-Billa and Golilata and other local games. Ministers and other dignitaries also participated. Chandrababu would be celebrating the festival with his family at Naravaripalle from Friday evening.

Cockfights, Sheep-fights Go On Unhindered

Despite a ban on cockfights in AP, the game is being conducted in several places especially Godavaris. People participated in cockfights and placed huge bets defying all restrictions. In addition, sheep-fights were also introduced this time in some places in Krishna districts.

In Anupally village in Chittoor, youths played Jallikattu involving bulls defying a Supreme Court ban on the game.