Rangareddy’s rain deficit tops 60%: villagers turn to an ancient frog ritual

Telangana is staring at a significant seasonal rainfall shortfall this year, with parts of Rangareddy district recording a deficit that has crossed 60%, delaying sowing operations and putting the kharif crop at risk. Meteorologists trace the dry spell to the absence of active low-pressure systems over the Bay of Bengal, which has left the state in a temporary rain-shadow zone even as neighbouring states receive substantial rainfall.

Against that backdrop, women in Nednur village of Kandukur mandal revived ‘kappa aata’, a frog-dance ritual abandoned during years of dependable monsoons but now resurrected amid fears that the kharif season could fail. The women tied a live frog to a small wooden stick, decorated it with turmeric and kumkum, and carried it from house to house through the village, singing traditional folk songs asking Lord Varuna, the rain god, for timely showers.

Maize is the principal crop in Nednur, and with agriculture in the village entirely rain-fed, large stretches of farmland remain unsown. Many of the women taking part in the ritual have been left without work because sowing activities have stalled. The scenes echo 2016, when recurring droughts and severe rainfall deficits pushed communities across Telangana toward similar prayers, a practice that had otherwise faded over the following decade of favourable monsoons.

‘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,’ said Mutyal Reddy, a farmer from the area. One villager, who has two acres of land currently lying uncultivated, said the government should step in to compensate farmers for agricultural work already undertaken this season.

The revival of rain rituals is spreading beyond Nednur. Villages in Jangaon, Jagtial and Karimnagar districts have also brought back kappa aata this season. In Mulugu, communities have turned to Varadapasham, offering sweet rice on sacred rocks and consuming it without using their hands as an act of humility before the rain gods, while residents of Suryapet district have organised Vanavasam, gathering in nearby forests to pray communally for rain and share a meal afterward.

‘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 in the Nednur procession, capturing the mood in a district where the wait for rain has stretched agriculture, income and patience alike.

Wikimedia Commons/by Vinay kumar malyam upadyaya