Eating Mud during Droughts 

This story I heard from my Amma, I always find it amusing, So here i am sharing it.

Once upon time there was Drought in Andhra, which is called dokkala karuvu / Guntur karuvu / Nandana karuvu/ pedda karuvu/ Dhatu karuvu, Valasa Karuvu, musti karuvu / Dobba Karuvu (karuvu - drought) . At that time, in Guntur district, there were so many dead bodies from Ongole to Machilipatnam. Even the highway from Godavari districts to Chennai had so many dead bodies. East India Company did not recognize the intensity of this drought in time, and because of that many people died. There was not enough food or water for anybody. The drought was more in Guntur district than other districts. That's why it was called as Guntur drought. It lasted for 22 months and was described as most grievous calamity of its kind experienced in British India since the beginning of the century. 

People started moving from one place to another, during that time, the situation was so agonizing so people began to consume Erra Matti (red mud) mixing with curd or milk and prickly pear fruit and a number of other wild plants and roots including the pith of the flowering stalks of the American aloe' and the leaves of Devadaru (Sethia Indica) due to scarcity of food grains.

Below is the picture of the people during drought. 

For more info on drought :
http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/1710/8/08_chapter%202.pdf