Various activities were held on the second day of Rajpur Nature Festival organised jointly by the Uttarakhand Forest Department and the Rajpur Community Initiative Society.
Visitors to the festival inaugurated on the weekend, participated in a range of activities including heritage walks, nature walks and butterfly trails, which were conducted in the morning. “We are getting a considerable number of people interested in the heritage walks and the nature walks. One has to register to attend these walks,” said Amit at the registration desk.
The photography and painting exhibition on Rajpur is also eliciting appreciation from visitors. “The painting section is spectacular. We especially invited children to paint only about Rajpur because a child’s mind is fresh and innocent which affects perception. You can see many paintings here which depict how Rajpur area should be according to the children. They know that its rich culture and serene environments are fast depleting. Adults should take inspiration from this instead of remaining apathetic,” said one of the organisers Reenu Paul.
Noted puppeteer Ramlal staged a puppet show in addition to a workshop for children which saw enthusiastic participation. “The response to our puppetry at this event is very good. You see, nowadays most children are unaware of puppetry which is also on the wane. I am glad that they love it and want to learn it,” said Ramlal who aims to take puppetry to newer heights.
Meanwhile, various views were expressed in a panel discussion on the importance of zonal planning in an eco-fragile area like Rajpur. DIT Architecture dean Anubha Kakroo and ex municipal commissioner of Dehradun, Harak Singh Rawat were the panelist along with Surjit Mukherjee and others for this discussion.
Apart from various musical and dance performances, the festival concludes every day with the staging of Rajpur’s traditional Ram leela.
Another attraction at the festival are the food stalls with some of them selling traditional Pahadi dishes like arsa and jhangora kheer. Daman Madan, an old resident of Rajpur who was born and brought up in lahore (now Pakistan) served lahori kheer and Peshawari firni. Her daughter in law said, “These are famous desserts of Peshawar and my mother in-law has made them. She wants to give the taste of her mother’s recipe to those visiting this festival.”
Purkul Youth Development Society (PYDS) learning Academy presented a street play on media trials. “We want to make people media literate, which is a huge term and our media also needs to be literate about it. What media should be and what it actually is, that’s the contrast that our students are focusing on,” said Manish, the academy’s executive secretary and Rajpur resident.
“It is a great initiative and people should know about Rajpur’s interesting past and history. Not only that, it is an enterprise to awaken people of Dehradun to need for saving and protecting the environment of the area,” said lokesh Ohri, one of the organisers of Rajpur Nature Festival.
Various activities are slated to be held on the concluding day, Monday.
These include puppetry workshop by Ramlal, panel discussion on state of natural resources and public land use in Doon valley, skits for adults on social issues, various cultural presentations, launch of a book on compilation on Rudyard Kipling by Natraj Books, felicitation of Rajpur’s green ambassadors and announcement of the theme for the Rajpur festival 2016.