K. Kavitha celebrates 'Bathukamma' in New Zealand

Telangana MP K. Kavitha celebrated the 'Bathukamma' festival, which was jointly organized by Telangana Jagruthi and New Zealand Telangana Association, in Auckland today.

Kavitha is this year taking the festival of Bathukamma to the international platform in a bid to attract foreign investors for the state of Telangana. She has already held celebrations in Dubai, the U.K., the U.S. and Australia.

She will now head to Singapore, Bahrain, Kuwait and Denmark.

This festival is a symbol of Telangana's cultural identity and celebrated during the latter half of monsoon and before the onset of winter.

The festival celebrates the inherent relationship between earth, water and the human beings. During the entire preceding week, women make 'Boddemma' (a deity of Gowri - mother Durga - made with earthly mud) along with 'Bathukamma' (flower stack, arranged with different unique seasonal flowers most of them with medicinal values) and immerse it in a pond.

It is believed that it helps reinforce ponds and retain more water.

The flowers used in Bathukamma have a great quality of purifying water and such flowers when immersed in abundance in a pond, it have the effect of cleansing water and making the environment much better.