MP: 40 injured during 'Hingot festival' in Indore

Around forty people received minor burns during the celebration of 'Hingot Festival' in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district on Tuesday. Every year, several people sustain injuries during this event. Despite several attempts to stop the festival, the tradition still continues.

Indore:At least 40 people were injured during hurling of a charred local fruit at each other while celebrating the annual 'Hingot Festival' in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district, a police official said on Tuesday.

The festival was celebrated in Gautampura area, located around 55 km from here, on Monday, he said.

During the event, held traditionally a day after Diwali, people of two villages here attack each other with hingots, a local forest fruit, by removing its pulp and stuffing it with gunpowder, coal, and brimstone.

The groups from Gautampura and Rungi villages then ignite the fruit's stem attached to a rope (like a cracker) and throw them at each other like rockets, as part of what locals call the "hingot war".

During the event on Monday, at least 40 people received minor burns, the police official said.

Nineteen of them were provided first aid on the spot where police and health officials were deployed to keep an eye on the participants, he said.

The other injured persons did not come to the medical camp and went home on their own, he added.

Every year, several people get injured during the event.

Despite several attempts to stop the festival, the tradition has continued.