Accommodation facilities have been bolstered, and several government departments are working night and day to cater to the mammoth crowds expected.
Preparations for the Medaram Jathara are on in full swing.
Accommodation facilities for the mammoth crowds coming to Medaram to worship the tribal deities Sammakka and Saralamma have been further enhanced with the olive green tents put up by the state forest department.
Some 100 forest tents have been put up in a five-acre plot near Jampanna Vagu, about a kilometre from the Gadde (the temple of Sammakka and Saralamma) at Medaram, each of which can accommodate five persons. The tents will be made available for occupation at a daily rate of Rs 2,000, or Rs 1,000 for 12 hours, and come equipped with drinking water.
The district administration has roped in tribal youngsters as the tent operators. The tents may be booked on the phone numbers 7702848103 and 8096210513, and PayTM number 9553142346.
The tourism department, too, has put up 48 luxury tents for pilgrims at the tribal fair, with two beds, common toilets and drinking water facilities in each, offered on a rental basis.
The department has also started a permanent Haritha hotel near the Girijan Museum to develop Medaram into a tourist destination.
The jathara is likely to attract 1.2 crore visitors this season, and the government is making elaborate arrangements with 10,000 policemen, 12,000 toilets, 2,000 sanitary workers, 25 lakh water bottles, three lakh cloth bags, 500 doctors and 1,000 district officials in place to manage the four-day festival.
The departments of tourism and tribal welfare, and the police, are making concerted efforts to develop the folk festival, in which tribals and non-tribals from 15 forest districts of Telangana and six other states of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, AP, MP, Odisha and Jharkhand participate, into Asia's biggest tribal event.
Speaking on the occasion, the District Collector in-charge said that the government was only acting as a facilitator, and that the festival was in fact being conducted by Koya priests as per the tribal customs and traditions.