The frenzied participants started attacking the administration officials and policemen.

This is not the first time that the administration has tried to stop the ritual and failed. In order to contain the number of injured in the festival, the administration introduced rubber balls instead of stones in 2001 and 2002 but participants switched back to stones in 2003.

The Gotmaar festival is celebrated every year on the day after the new moon in Bhadrapad month of the Hindu calendar.

During the festival, men from Pandhurna and Sawargaon villages, located on opposite banks of the river Jamna in Chhindwara district, about 400 km from here, hurl stones at each other.