On August 15, as India celebrates its 75th Independence Day, Pedda Kurumapally village in Karimnagar district will etch its name in history with a unique flag hoisting ceremony. Its award-winning farmer Mavuram Mallikarjun Reddy will hoist the Tricolour near an India map made of rice saplings on his farm.
Mallikarjun has planted kalabati — a black rice variety — saplings to create an India map of 50 feet in length (measured north to south) at his farm. Done as part of the Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav, Mallikarjun calls it a farmer’s way of celebrating Independence Day. He has also created images of Mahatma Gandhi, ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) and Swachh Bharat with kalabati saplings planted on his two-acre farm.
“It is my unfulfilled wish from last year and I didn’t want it to remain that way,” says Mallikarjun, who began working on it in June. As preparation, he took A4 size printouts of the Indian map, folded them on sides, and calculated the distance of each side from its centre. He then converted the distance from centimetres to feet and used a hose pipe to create a rough figure of the map. With his father Mavuram Laxma Reddy’s guidance from atop a water tanker, Mallikarjun planted the saplings in the field. He first created a small map of 15 feet length for practice and after some success, he planted saplings on 50 feet.
By August 15, the saplings will complete 41 days and the paddy will be ready for harvest in around 120 days.
From August 15 onwards, Mallikarjun plans to hoist the Indian flag every morning and take it down in the evening for 365 days. “It is a proud moment for my family,” says Mallikarjun who pays tribute to the ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’ slogan with this initiative.
