Delhi’s Mango lovers can look forward to another fascinating display of the King of Fruits as the Tourism department of the Delhi Government will be hosting three-day 27th Mango Festival between 11 am and 8 pm from Friday at Dilli Haat in Janakpuri.
The Tourism department has been organising this festival since 1988 to celebrate the magnificent variety of flavours offered by the king of fruits. Mango has been an inseparable part of Indian culture since ancient times.
The festival has become a prominent feature on Delhi’s event calendar, having shifted venues a couple of times. From the orchards of Saharanpur, where the first festival was organised, the annual event was shifted to Talkatora Indoor Stadium in 1991, and then, in 2010, to Dilli Haat, Pitampura.
With the passage of time, the festival has become a major cultural event of Delhi, attracting thousands of visitors every year. Mango growers across the country —including Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Uttar Pradesh — gather here to display the traditional and hybrid varieties of mangoes.
These traditional mango growers have attained expertise over generations excelling in research and propagation of this fruit.
With over 500 varieties on display at the festival, this journey of mangoes from the orchards to Dilli Haat, Janakpuri, is expected to be a refreshing experience for the visitors. The various types of Mangoes on display will include langra, Chausa, Rataul, Hussainara, Ramkela, Kesar, Fazri, Mallika, and Amrapali and other assorted varieties.
The mango is believed to be indigenous to the Indian sub-Continent and is as old as the land itself. There are more than 1,365 varieties of mangoes all over the world, and in India about 1,000 varieties are available. If you want to have a look at a mango, which is as small as a grape or as big as a papaya, the 27th Mango Festival is the place to be in.
Mango is referred to in Sanskrit literature as “Amra” and has been under cultivation by man for over 4,000 years. This indigenous fruit occupied an important place in horticulture during the rule of the Mughal emperors in India. It has been observed that Mughal Emperor Akbar during 1556-1605 planted an orchard of 100,000 mango trees at his royal vicinity. The knowledge of vegetative preparation of mango gained in the 16th century, which however made it possible to produce mango over a large scale with the help of many cultivators. Mango cultivation is found in many countries of Southeast Asia— Philippines, Indonesia, Java, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia and Sri lanka.
There are about 13 farmers and nine Government institutions participating in the festival. Major participating farmers are Tariq Mustafa from Mustafa Orchards, Abdul Samad, Ali Mia Jhinjhana, Mohammad Hanif, Tafzeel Ahmad and many more. Apart from this, Government institutions like Rajya Krishi Utpadan Mandi Parishad, UP; UPICAR - Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi; Directorate of Horticulture and Food Processing, UP; Bihar Agricultural University, Bihar and Mother Dairy, New Delhi are also taking part in the festival.