Come Sankranti and cock fight betting goes unhindered with the blessings of the men in uniform in the Godavari districts. The bouts are a part of the festival celebrations especially for the Royal community of the state. Hyderabad had been freed from traffic woos because of two reasons while one is the students hailing from various parts get back home for the festival. On the other hand, the elite of the society travel with their families to Godavari district to take part in these games.

Usually the cockfights are of two types, first one is cocks fight with knives tied to their legs and this lasts for a few minutes. While the second one is the normal fight which lasts for hours. In each case huge betting is done and many times run into crores.

The punters include politicians and rich elite. These three days it is cynosure on one side with a fear among the participants over unexpected police raid. Most of the organizers are rumored to wet the hands of the officials to avoid the unwanted hassles, or else the betting would not have been in the reckoning, year-after-year.

Many rich farmers rear these fighting cocks and take utmost care of them. The cocks are bathed in warm waters and fed high calorific diets like badam, pista and cashew. Later special work outs are also planned for these cocks to master the art of fighting. There are also stress revealing  exercises included in their curriculum.

After year around rearing the elite owners wait for this day when the events commence. Apart from money it is the prestige that is more of concerns to the elite class. The game goes on unhindered every year, in spite of its legality under question. (Wishesh AarKay)