more-in As many as 100 coracles or circular boats will race with each other on the Hussainsagar on October 16 and 17, promising onlookers a spectacular display of Bathukamma floats. Coracles, usually used by fishermen in some districts of Telangana, are believed to be of Scottish origin. Telangana Tourism Department in association with the Yatch club of Hyderabad will have oarsmen rowing the coracles while young women sailors of the Yacht club will perform the traditional dance on the boat. The sailors will also hold a coracle race during the event. The boating events will take place near the Buddha statue at the lake at 4.30 pm. Flagging off a rehearsal of the event at the lake on Monday, Burra Venkatesham, principal secretary of the department, said the Bathukamma-on-water event will be the first-of-its-kind in the State. As part of that, dancers who started the boat ride at Sanjeevaiah Park, sailed for 20-minutes circling the Buddha statue before they started floating the pots. The male sailors were seen singing as they rowed the boats. All coracles were blue in colour with flowers sewn to their rims. The centre of each coracle had a Bathukamma installation. The dancers and oarsmen also performed the dance while standing on the coracle. “The target is to create 100 Bathukammas on the water and enter the record books over a few years with larger collections on a single water body. The floating Bathukammas will be lit up from the inside at night and add a sheet of multi-coloured beauty to the lake near the Buddha statue,” said Mr. Venkatesham. Suheim Sheikh, who runs the Yatch club, said they will promote coracle racing in the coming years.

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