Puli Rajaiah, now in his sixties, takes pride in his bullock cart. The Koya tribal farmer says the cart he is using now is the third one in his life. Made of teak wood, the bullock cart is the most expensive when compared to any animal-drawn vehicle in vogue now, he says.
Mr. Rajaiah’s village of Ulumuru by the Sabari river in Chintoor Agency of East Godavari district has 10 bullock carts in use. Another dozen of them deserted by their owners now are parked in front of their houses.
At a time when bullocks carts are gradually being replaced by tractors, the Koya tribes from Ulumuru still dependant on these animal-drawn vehicles for farming and transportation.
An area spreading over 25 km beginning from the outskirts of Chintoor Agency, the entry point of the Sabari into Andhra Pradesh to its confluence into the Godavari at Kunavaram, the Koya tribal belt is still use bullock carts.
This is probably the only zone in the State where one can see hundreds of bullock carts on roads. It is hard to find a village without bullock cart along the stretch of the Sabari riverbed in the Bison Hill Range, also known as Papikonda Hill Range.
“The bullock cart has been a part and parcel of our life since generations. We cannot give it up for we cannot afford any other alternative means of transport,” says Mr. Rajaiah.
The villagers say that the cost of making a bullock cart is around ₹10,000, excluding the wood and each can be used for almost two decades, adding that its longevity will be nearly a decade if it gets wet frequently.
The animal-drawn vehicle is fast vanishing from rural areas of the State. But for these Koyas, it is still the prime mode for transport and a vital part of farming. Be it trasnsportation of pady seedling from a nursery, bringing the harvest to the home or carrying the produce to the market, the tribes are dependant on bullock cart. “We also use the cart to transport minor forest produce, toddy leaves, and other wood, even as using them to go the weekly shandies has declined over the years,” says Mr. Rajaiah.
At least half a dozen carpenters who make the carts are available in the area. “We cannot think about our life without bullock carts. We may need to give them up once we shifted to the Resettlement and Rehabilitation colonies in the non-forest dwellings. Several villages along the 25-km stretch need to be rehabilitated to make way for the Polavaram Irrigation Project,” say the villagers.
They say even the cattle which pull the carts are familiar with the routes. They reach the destination even without any rider, the villagers say.
