They are also used in crowd control during festival periods, at times of natural disaster, and to reinforce regular police when necessary.
It starts with 'poochatuthal' which marks the beginning of the festival period.
The programme is structured around four annual festival periods dispersed throughout the year.
All government offices, educational institutions and other offices remain closed during the festival period.
Doubles $245 to $350; $433 in the festival period.
Accounts from these centuries indicate that all family members were required to reunite in their home villages during the festival period.
During the six-week 2011 festival period, the site received over a million pageviews and offered 3,829 audience reviews.
Over the festival period we will be screening a selective retrospective of the director's work at the Triangle cinema.
For the whole of the festival period Central Television will be joining in and adding a new screen with a difference.
In addition to the main competition, there are several mini-festivals within the festival period.