Latest news with #Barahi
Time of India
09-08-2025
- Time of India
‘Stone-pelting' tradition turns floral at Champawat's Bagwal festival
Pithoragarh: The centuries-old Bagwal festival was celebrated on Saturday in Devidhura village of Champawat district, coinciding with Raksha Bandhan. This year, the ritual lasted just eight minutes, drawing large crowds and featuring four Kham clans -- Balig (white), Chamiyal (pink), Gaharwal (saffron) and Lamgaria (yellow). Tired of too many ads? go ad free now For these clans, Bagwal is a sacred tradition, with preparations beginning a fortnight in advance and participants following specific lifestyle changes in the lead-up to the event. Head priest Kirti Ballabh Joshi traced the festival's origins to a time when human sacrifice was an annual ritual at the local Barahi temple. "Each household was required to offer a human sacrifice every year. Once, a widow from the Chamiyal clan pleaded with goddess Barahi to spare her only son. People believe the goddess agreed, but demanded blood equal to that of a human. Since then, villagers have observed Bagwal, in which they would hurl stones at each other," he said. District information officer Dhreej Karki said, "This year, Bagwal was played from 1.58 pm to 2.06 pm, and 187 participants were injured." Until recent years, the festival often left hundreds hurt. In 2013, following a Uttarakhand high court directive, stones were replaced with fruits and flowers, making the ritual largely symbolic. This year, 12 quintals of fruit and three quintals of flowers were used, with only a few stones thrown ceremonially in the final moments.
Time of India
13-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
UP earmarks 5 hectares to grow dates on a commercial basis
L Tired of too many ads? go ad free now ucknow: In a first for the state, UP is set to grow dates (khajoor) on a commercial basis under the mission for integrated development of horticulture (MIDH) scheme of the centre. To begin with, the state has set the target of a meagre five hectares for date palm cultivation for 2025-26. Considering the agro-climatic conditions required for date palm cultivation, Mirzapur in Vindhya or Jalaun in Bundelkhand may be picked up as the area for production. Date palm cultivation was a new component introduced by the centre under the MIDH scheme sponsored by it, and the states were assigned the target for cultivation. The state horticulture department already has a plan to promote the cultivation of commercially viable varieties of fruits, like dragon fruit and strawberry. The promotion of date palm cultivation was added to the plan. "Date palm being a high-yielding crop will help increase the income of the farmers and revenue to the state," said an official of the horticulture department, which began its experiment with the crop last year. Over 250 plants of the Barahi variety (which produces dates) were procured from an agriculture university in Rajasthan and planted sporadically on govt land in Mirzapur. The trees are over a year old now and are expected to yield fruits by the third year. The experiment will help to learn to deal with challenges, like rains in June-July when the crop is still raw, said sources. The weather-related challenges will need a special focus in growing date palm in UP, which is a crop of dry and arid zones. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now To encourage farmers to grow the crop, a 40% subsidy on the input cost of Rs 4 lakh per hectare has been fixed for the commercial cultivation of the tissue culture plant. Because chances of survival for date palm saplings are low, the tissue culture plant is the most stable choice, and farmers growing them will only get the subsidy. The centre of excellence, which the department is planning to set up in Mirzapur for commercially profitable varieties, will further promote date palm cultivation in UP.
