Greens Appeal to Rahul Gandhi to Halt Kambala at Mysuru Dasara

On the eve of Mysuru’s grand Dasara celebrations, a coalition of environmental and farmer organisations, under the banner of Parisarakkagi Naavu, penned a letter to Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Their plea is simple yet urgent: ask Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar to scrap the plan of staging the traditional Kambala buffalo race as part of the city’s festival.

The joint action committee that drafted the letter includes members from Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, Dalith Sangharsha Samithi and several other progressive bodies. In their note they flagged a litany of practical concerns – swelling crowds, snarled traffic, piles of waste – that would, they argue, overwhelm the city’s already stretched Dasara infrastructure.

Beyond logistics, the activists stress a cultural argument. Kambala, they remind us, is an 800‑year‑old sport rooted in the coastal districts of Karnataka, steeped in local religious rituals. Pulling it out of its native milieu and grafting it onto an urban celebration, they say, dilutes both the sport’s authenticity and the historic essence of Dasara.

The timing, they add, could not be worse. Karnataka is grappling with a severe drought, and a water‑intensive event like Kambala feels out of step with the state’s current hardships. Rather than forcing the race into the festivities, the letter urges the government to address the existing gaps in Dasara’s programme and to give due recognition and fair remuneration to Mysuru’s home‑grown artists.

Earlier, the group had also approached the head of Suttur Mutt, Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Swamiji, seeking his intercession to remove Kambala from the festival’s itinerary. By now turning to Rahul Gandhi, they hope that a high‑profile political ally can tip the balance in favour of a more sustainable, locally respectful celebration.