Tribals celebrate mass hunting festival in Orissa

Bhubaneswar, Apr 16 (ANI): The tribals of Orissa’s Koratput district are celebrating their two month-long Akhand-Sikar (Mass Hunting) festival.

A puja (prayers), which lasts for 10 to 11 days, is held before they go into the forests for hunting.

“First we call the disari (village priest) for worshipping our god. He offers hen to the god and then suggests us the direction we should go in, which, we follow and hunt,” said Dhanurjaya, a local.

Their female partners glorify the members of the groups before leaving on the hunting expedition. They use their traditional weapons for hunting which they worship as a part of the ritual.

Once they find a prey, the group attacks it simultaneously with their traditional weapons like axes, spears, bows and arrows.

“We prepare prasaad as per the tradition. We worship our traditional weapons. And on the day…they go to the forest with their traditional weapons for hunting. When they come back with the hunted animals, we distribute them amongst ourselves and celebrate as per our rituals,” said Bhagaban, Village Head.

This year, the festival started last week and will end in June. (ANI)