Cow Festival 2014 Karthigai Deepam Festival Tiruvannamalai

Below is a pictorial representation of the 2014 Cattle Festival held at Tiruvannamalai during the Arunachala Karthigai Festival. 

The history of the Cattle Festival (which is held at Tiruvannamalai this time each year), is a long one that stretches back for hundreds of years. 

Unfortunately last year 2013, due to an outbreak of an infectious Cattle disease, the Festival had to be cancelled. However this year's Festival is a grand one with many bullocks, horses and even some sheep in evidence at the grounds of the Fair. 

The Fair is held in fields off the NH66 on the southside of Arunachala

Hundreds of Bullocks from Tamil Nadu at the Fair

These lucky bullocks enjoying the shade

White horse commonly used during wedding processions

Large number of horses for sale at the Fair

Horse carts and even sheep this year at the Fair

Beautiful colourful decorative and functional specialty items

Such stalls stretch down the sides of the NH66 near Arts College

Plentiful bells for cows and bullocks

Sometimes selling a bullock, is like losing a friend

Powerful bullocks to be used for agricultural and cart pulling purposes

Traditionally negotiations conducted by finger touching under cover

Excitement surrounding a deal just completed

NH66 Petition for Road Completion

Mr. Shekar Ramamurthy has started an online petition pertaining to speeding up work on the NH66 Krishnagiri-Tiruvannamalai Higway. 

The Petition reads: 

“The 170 Km stretch of NH66 between Krishnagiri and Tindivanam is the main connecting route to Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore, Chennai and Pondicherry. This is also the highway used by people coming from other parts of Tamil Nadu. It is used daily by thousands of people, from the villages along the route and for inter-state travel. Every month during full-moon around 5-6 lakh devotees visit Tiruvannamalai, for making circumambulation (girivalam) of Sacred Hill Arunachala and most of them use NH66 to reach Tiruvannamalai. 

Potholes on part of the roadway

The Holy Arunachala hill attracts spiritual seekers from across the globe. Several thousand foreign tourists come to Tiruvannamalai every year to visit the Ashram of the great sage Sri Ramana Maharishi and other holy places around the Arunachala hill. They use the NH66 for reaching Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore or Chennai Airport. The road condition has been very bad for several years. The road widening project, for making it a 2-lane highway started 2 years back. According to the May 2014 report of NHAI, the 2-laning contract has been awarded to Transstroy India and the project is expected to complete by September 2014. Many trees lining the road have been felled, but the work is nowhere near completion and in the last few months there is no sign of any work taking place on this highway. 

The road condition is so bad with huge pot holes that even the government transport buses use an alternate road wherever possible, like Krishnagiri-Vellore-Polur. Most of the traffic tries to use alternate routes which increase the travel distance by 40-50 kms, making the travel time longer and results in fuel wastage. The Government needs to prioritise this project and get it completed quickly.” 

To support this cause and sign the petition please visit this link here.