Nalwari Mela of Sunder Nagar - What Changes in 2014 Mela?

Hi,

 This post is not a travel story but, this may help the travelers coming to Himachal Pradesh to explore this part of the culture. This article is about a famous yearly festival of Himachal Pradesh,  main aim of which, is to help and popularize the mountain agriculture among those who need it.

In mountainous places such as Himachal Pradesh, the use of the mechanical equipment such as Tractor is not possible so, they have to use the bullocks. This fair brings a huge flock of pairs of bullocks along with their owners just for selling and buying of the bullocks. People from the adjacent states also join sometimes but less in number. These animals are the back-bone of agricultural activities in the Himalayan regions.

A view of Chinj(Wrestling match) at Nalwari Mela 2014 - Sunder Nagar (Image courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/SundarNagarTheCityBeautiful/photos/a.642455672438154.1073741829.642450729105315/826904750659911/?type=1&theater)

Along with the selling and buying of the bullocks the festival is supported by a famous wrestling event where winners get a handsome sum of money as a winning prize. Nights at the Jawahar park ground are bright with the numbers of cultural stars which come from all over the India.  This year i.e. 2014,  a numbers of stars including Abhijit Sawant showed up to entertain the public of Sunder Nagar. I observed that many local stars participated this year and that is good for promoting the local culture and talents of our own home land.

Day light at Jawahar Park Sunder Nagar on the occasion of Nalwari Mela 2014 

I have seen this festival since last two years and including me many others who use NH-21, faced the problem of the stray animals specifically bullocks who are forced to walk on those roads to find the food after getting rejected from being sell or bought either. 

The owners of these bullocks come to the fair with a mindset of either selling or leaving them because, they feel that they are now none of their business. 

Cultural nights of Nalwari Mela 2014, Sunder Nagar at Jawahar Park

This is the only thing which is not liked by anyone except those who leave their animals to wander at any places. This year the numbers of the animals on the roads and streets seems to get lower and that is a good news but still they are sufficient to make a news in the local newspaper. This is NH-21 so, it causes a lot of inconvenience to the traffic. 

Thanks for your kind visit!