Telangana farmers warn of ‘huge loss’ as rain fails, reviving a frog-dance prayer

‘We are witnessing a situation like this after a decade. We never had to pray to the rain god as he was kind to us. If rains do not arrive within the next week, it will be a huge loss for us.’ That warning, from farmer Mutyal Reddy in Nednur village, Rangareddy district, sums up the mood in parts of Telangana where a sharp monsoon deficit has delayed sowing and revived an old rain-invoking ritual not needed in a decade.

The ritual, known as ‘kappa aata’ or frog dance, saw women in Nednur tie a live frog to a small wooden stick, decorate it with turmeric and kumkum, and carry it through the village in a procession while singing traditional folk songs appealing to Lord Varuna, the rain god. Villagers followed along, adding their own prayers for rainfall and a healthy farming season. The custom rests on the belief that frogs act as messengers to the rain gods, and typically ends with rice and other essentials collected for a community feast.

Maize is the main crop grown in Nednur, and because farming there depends entirely on the monsoon, large stretches of farmland remain unsown this season. Many of the women who performed the ritual have themselves been left without work, since sowing operations across the village have stalled. One farmer with two acres of land said he currently has nothing to cultivate and called on the government to compensate villagers for agricultural work already carried out.

‘We learnt these traditions from our grandmothers. There was no need to perform them over the past decade. Now, we are once again invoking the rain god,’ said Anjamma, one of the participants, pointing to 2016 as the last time such rituals were widely needed across the state amid a run of severe rainfall deficits.

This year’s shortfall has crossed 60% in parts of Rangareddy district, a gap meteorologists attribute to the absence of active low-pressure systems over the Bay of Bengal, which has left Telangana in a temporary rain-shadow zone even as neighbouring states receive substantial rainfall.

The response has spread well beyond Nednur. Kappa aata has also returned in villages across Jangaon, Jagtial and Karimnagar districts. In Mulugu, communities have turned to Varadapasham, offering sweet rice on sacred rocks and eating it without using their hands, while residents of Suryapet district have carried out Vanavasam, gathering in nearby forests to pray communally for rain before sharing a meal — all signs of how deeply this season’s dry spell has unsettled Telangana’s farming communities.

Wikimedia Commons/by Vinay kumar malyam upadyaya