Hundreds of villagers waded into local lakes on Thursday 8 April for a south Indian fishing festival that encourages communal harmony.

The festival in south Tamil Nadu isn’t always a success, with monsoon rains sometimes making it a washout, like last year, but this year the sun shone and farmers even added some fish to the lakes for people to catch.

Almost 300 villagers jumped in the water, irrespective of age and gender. They used fishing nets, fishing rods, towels and sometimes even hands, to catch their fish.

One of the villager said: “Irrespective of the pandemic we had a nice time over here. This festival is not only for catching fish but also for harmony and tolerance.”

Traditional fishing festival that educates secularism and harmony in a village in South India. Hundreds of villagers wade out to get a big catch.

A village in South Tamilnadu where many are farmers celebrated a Traditional fishing festival. There was a complete failure of monsoon in many years but last year rains lashed out the entire district and as a result of that waters were filled in all the lakes and tanks in that village. The happy farmers brought some fish fingerlings and left it in the lakes.
The fingerlings were grown big enough for the catch. So the villagers decided to catch the fishes for the feast. Hence a day is chosen and almost around 300 villagers jumped in the tank irrespective of age and gender. They used Fishing nets, fishing rods, towels and even hands sometimes but they made sure that no one went with bare hands.
One of the villager said “Irrespective of the pandemic we had a nice time over here. This festival is not only for catching fish but also for harmony and tolerance. ” Completes the villager and goes back to have a good catch