Villagers catch fishes in River Aglar during Maund mela. People are gather to celebrate festival which is also known as Fish killing festival.
Maund Mela is a yearly fishing festival of Garhwal and its origin can be dated back to the pre-independence feudal era, initiated by the then Maharajah of Tehri. 'Maund' is a local term meaning the state of drunkenness or addiction.
Every year the local villagers gather at Aglar River, near Yamuna Bridge in Tehri district of Garhwal, Uttarakhand to celebrate the fishing festival.
The Maharajah then fixed one day which usually falls around 29th June of every year as "Mound."
The preparation for the festival begins one month before the actual day of the festival, when one chosen village is given a task to prepare "Mound", sort of addictive paste using the bark of "Timru" plant available locally, for the fish. The bark of the plant is dried and after grinding the powder in the water mills, a powder is created that is put on this day in the Aglar Rivulet so that the fish become paralysed and are caught easily in the nets that are spread downstream.
The use of the powder takes place after every head of the village arrives at the designated location at the Aglar Rivulet.
The villagers under the age bracket of 12 to 60 then wait for fish to fall in the respective nets of the individuals.
Aglar river is a major Himalayan tributary of the river Yamuna. It rises as a number of small streams fed by underground water on the western slopes of the ridge separating the drainage of the Yamuna and Bhagirathi to the west of Tehri. Thereafter the Aglar runs along an east-west direction to join the Yamuna river near a place called Yamuna bridge.The small streams draining the northern slopes of the Mussoorie ridge contribute their water to this river.
Source: younguttarakhand.com, books.google.co.in
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