Aadi Perukku celebrated with gaiety; farmers hopeful of a bountiful samba harvest

The copious water flow in the Cauvery and the Kollidam made for joyful Aadi Perukku celebration in Tiruchi and most other places in the delta region on Saturday

The copious flow in the Cauvery and the Kollidam made for joyful Aadi Perukku celebration in Tiruchi and most other places in the delta region on Saturday.

The Cauvery banks and other water courses drew large crowds who offered puja. Given the heavy flow in the river, the police took no chances and police pickets were posted at almost all bathing ghats along the river. Barricades had been erected to prevent people from venturing deep into the waters.

In Tiruchi, hundreds of people thronged the Amma Mandapam bathing ghat to perform puja to the Cauvery as a mark of gratitude to the river. Newly weds performed puja and rituals, praying for prosperity.

Celebrated on the 18th day of Tamil month of Aadi, the festival celebrates the life sustaining properties of water. It marks the commencement of Aadi pattam, the cultivation season when most farmers prefer to sow seeds.

With the Mettur dam filled up, farmers are hopeful of a bountiful samba season. The farmers in the canal-irrigated areas were not able to raise the short term kuruvai crop this year as water could not be released from the Mettur dam on the scheduled date of June 12 due to poor storage.

“The festival was celebrated with enthusiasm as there is good flow in the Cauvery and the Kollidam. We are hopeful of a good samba season given the good storage at Mettur dam,” said N. Veerasekaran, a progressive farmer from Lalgudi.

Meanwhile, the Water Resources Department continued to divert over one lakh cubic feet (cusecs) of water in the Kollidam from the Upper Anicut on the outskirts of the city.