Bihan Mela

• The members of the Kondh tribe in Odisha’s Nayagarh district have added Bihan Mela as their festival.

About Bihan Mela

• It is known as the seed festival and the event is celebrated by the farmers.
• Preparations begin as soon as farmers have harvested Kharif crops, which include both hybrid and indigenous varieties of paddy, millets, maize and sorghum.
• Women are at the helm of this festival and carefully collect seeds of the indigenous varieties and store them in earthen pots.
• On a designated day in December, they decorate the pots with red and white motifs, place them in a bamboo basket and carry it on their head to the village where the fair is being organised.
• The seed festival was initiated by Nirman, a non-profit organization working with the tribe on forest rights and agro-ecological farming.
• This was introduced to help farmers return to their traditional ways of farming like mixed cropping.