Posts filed under ‘Agriculture’
Paharia tribals celebrate Nuankhai in a unique way
Balangir: The Paharia tribals living in remote villages of Nuapada district have a unique way of celebrating Nuakhai. They offer liquor and meat to their presiding deity before having the new crop. The eldest member of a Paharia family worships the deity called the Duma and makes the offering.
“It has been our tradition to offer meat and liquor to the deity before partaking the new crop. After this ritual, all community members congregate at one place to join the feast,” said Satrughan Paharia. “Except this, all other rituals are same. It is the eldest member of the family, who gives the new crop to other members. Other communities offer only the new crop,” said Sriram Paharia.
The Paharias are concentrated in Bargaon, Bhainsadani, Katingpani and some villages inside the Sunabeda sanctuary.
Sources said the places where Paharias reside have turned into a Maoist den. The Paharias have been fighting for Primitive Tribal Group (PTG) status, which will help in their development. They would benefit under some special schemes too.
NUANKHEI: The worship of new grain
Nuankhai/Nuankhei is the festival of worship of food grain involving cutting of the first crop and reverent offering of the same to the mother goddess. The literary meaning of Nuankhai celebration is ‘eating of new rice’.
People start preparing for the celebration of Nuankhai before a fortnight. The preparation includes cleaning houses (lipa pucha) and buying of new clothes.
On the day of Nuankhai, early in the morning people worship the cattle, and equipments, tools, machines and all helpful aides relating to farming, showing obligation towards them. Afterwards follows ritualistic puja for the local deities. For example, the Kuilta caste people perform puja at the handisalfor kalapat, kumptipat etc; and they use mahul leaf plate ( khali ) and leaf cup (dana) to serve food and other purpose.
Nuanchara is eaten in different leaves by people of different castes. After the ritualistic puja at their presiding deities, all the family members sit together and eat the nuanchara and take the blessings of elders.
Nuankhai in other Tribes
According to various researchers, evidences can be found of Nuankhai been observed more or less by the entire major tribes in central and eastern India, of course, with a minor difference in their nomenclature. In this context, instances can be given of Jeth Nawakhai among the Dudh Kharia and Pahari Kharia, Nawakhani amongst the Oraon and Birjia, Jom Nawa among the Munda and Birjia,Janther or Baihar-Horo Nawai by the Santal, Gondli Nawakhani by the tribal people of Ranchi district, Nawa by the Birjia, Nawa-Jom by the Birhor, Dhan Nawakhani by Korwa and so on.
Also, researchers have mentioned about the Nawakhani festival of the Paraja, a small tribe found in the Bastar region and Odisha. Santals in Santal Pargana term it as Jom Nawa. Also there are evidences that Nuakhai is also celebrated in Tripura and named as Mikatal where Mi stands for paddy and Katal refers to new.
Saket Sreebhushan Sahu, Editor BENI, Bargarh, Odisha
Lower Suktel Irrigation Project of Balangir district: Politics and Reality
Following report is from the Samaja:
Work on Lower Suktel project to start from September 27: Govt
Following report is from the Pioneer:
Bowing to pressure from the Opposition Congress and in a bid to foil the call given by the Balangir Citizens’ Committee and the Lower Suktel Action Committee (LSAC) for Balangir bandh on Friday, the State Government on Thursday announced in the House that construction work of the already delayed Lower Suktel Irrigation Project (LSIP) would start from September 27.
However, the State Assembly during zero hour witnessed a war of words between two political heavy weights of the erstwhile Balangir royal familiy – uncle AU Singh Deo, senior vice-president of the BJD and former Minister and his nephew
Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, floor leader of the BJP and also a former Minister — over the inordinate delay in starting work on the Lower Suktel Project which is yet see the light of the day after 11 years of its administrative clearance.
The issue which was raised for the consecutive third day in the House since the beginning of the monsoon session with the BJP lawmaker from
Patnagarh drawing the attention of Speaker PK Amat to the indefinite hunger strike undertaken by the LSAC demanding early establishment of the irrigation project.
Since the condition of the strikers continued to be serious and two of them were already admitted in the local hospital in critical condition, he sought the Speaker to direct the Government to make a statement in the House on the fate of the project.
He alleged that due to insensitive attitude of the Government and the local ruling party leaders, the project was getting delayed while the district has only around four per cent of irrigation coverage.
The BJP member (KV) was critical of the statement of his uncle that the State Government had been reviewing the status of the project from time to time.
He ridiculed that if the review was being done, the Government should speak out as to what was the bottleneck for starting the project.
KV was joined by the two Congress MLAs — Santosh Singh Saluja and Surendra Singh Bhoi in slamming the Government for being neglectful towards the people of Balangir. The two Congress MLAs had alleged that the project could not be taken up due to lack of interest on the part of the State Government as a result of which the project cost had escalated from the original Rs215 crore to Rs1,200 crore.
Earlier the two Congress members Singh and Singh Bhoi had staged dharana in the House on the opening day and on the second day resorted to dharna near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Assembly premises, seeking a definite assurance from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who is also the Water Resources Minister, concerning the fate of the project and a definite timeframe to start
the project.
However, former Minister and senior BJD vice-president AU Singh Deo tried to defend the Government in the political bout. Asserting that the State Government was committed to set up the project, Singh Deo in an indirect attack on his nephew and the Congress members said it was unfortunate that the entire issue was being given a political colour.
Knowing that the project would be started very soon, some
people have started agitation to defame the Government.
Sensing the gravity of the situation, the Speaker, who had earlier ruled that the Government would make a statement on the issue, revised his ruling, directing the Government to give a statement on the LSIP on Friday.
Anyway, in a calculated move in order to neutralise the Friday dawn-to-dusk Balangir band, Urban Development Minister Raghu Nath Mohanty made a statement on behalf the Chief Minister in the House in the evening.
Stating that the Government was committed to setting up of the LSIP, Mohanty said out of the 5,654 acres of land required for the project, so far the process for land acquisition has been competed in 1,574 acres. However, he clarified that due to opposition from some sections of people, the project was delayed.
He said as many as 5,309 families would be displaced for the proposed irrigation project. The Government had already constructed rehabilitation colony and as many as 684 families had agreed to shift to the new colony, he said.
The Minister said socio-economic survey is in process in 14 out of 29 villages coming under the project area. Mohanty announced in the House that work on the irrigation project will start from September 27.
Following image is taken from a FB post by OTV:
Underdeveloped western Odisha: A look on WODC, KBK and Balangir district
Following report is from the Samaja:
Kosal Discussion and Development Forum 