Annual Basant Utsav from today

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 23

A two-day annual spring festival - Basant Utsav — will commence tomorrow at the lawns of Raj Bhawan. The popular festival dedicated to flowers, vegetables will bring under one roof commercial flower growers, hobbyists and entrepreneurs all participating in different competitions.

While addressing a press conference today, Uttarakhand Governor Dr KK Paul said, “A special postal cover dedicated to (allium wallichii, kunth) will be released. This is a plant found in the Himalayas and is used in medicines and spices,” said Paul.

Dr Paul said this year the festival would also become a source of disseminating information about the cultivation of Bulgarian Rose. “We have been told that the soil in Uttarakhand is conducive for growing these flowers which are used for manufacturing of oil. We import around 12-13 tonnes of these flowers annually,” he said.

As of now the state is producing around 2,073 metric tonne lose flowers and around 15 .66 crore cut flowers.

The main attraction during the two days festival will be a flower competition in different categories along with events in photography, fresh petal Rangoli competition, hanging pots and painting competition for children.

In order to bring in more number of visitors for the event a van decorated with flowers has been doing the rounds of the city informing the residents about the festival.

Further, a website www.uttarakhand spring festival has also been developed to provide interface to the people interested in horticulture and floriculture.