It's nine in the morning, and members of this household in Sooraguppe village are wondering who will show up at their doorstep to take their cattle to graze. And then, a villager appears at the doorstep, all set to herd the cattle out.
The same story is repeated in the next 18 to 25 homes in the village, and all the cattle are taken out to graze by one person. Also, Sooraguppe is not the only village where this happens. Malnad's other villages including Yalakundli, 18 km away from Sagar, Hirenellur, Kagodu, etc, all have the same system.
It works perfectly well with households that have cattle, particularly during the rainy months, when it is difficult for householders to herd them out to graze. This system is called 'baari' (in Kannada, it means repeat, or turn) which is basically a rotation policy.
Because it is a largely agrarian society, every household has at least two oxen and a couple of buffaloes. Sooraguppe has 113 houses and the village has as many as 600 to 700 cattle-heads.
The rota system works thus: Once the rainy season sets in, by June or July, members of 25 households get together. They then draw up a list of people who will take the cattle out for herding from the first day of every month to the 25th of the same month.
So, if Annappa grazes 60 to 70 cattle during the beginning of the month, his turn arrives only 25 days later. The remaining time is used by Annappa to complete pending agricultural activities such as sowing paddy, etc. Also, this rota system is a free service.
A shining example of community living and contributing for the common good. What's more, this system saves farmers' precious time.
However, this was not the case a good 15 years ago. Earlier, there was a cowherd for every 25 homes in the village. He was paid in kind. A bag of paddy every year, for instance. This would add up to about 15 quintals of paddy. There was also the tradition of offering new clothes for the cowherd and his family.
But once those traditionally into herding cows started to get educated, this system began to disappear, bringing the issue of who would take care of the cattle into focus. Grazing cattle became particularly difficult because of the slew of agricultural activities a farmer was involved in.
The Malnad region is known for ginger, paddy and arecanut cultivation, keeping farmers very busy.
It was then that this system of rotation came in handy.