Mangoes named ‘Haathi’ (on account of its size), ‘Veer Zara’, ‘Gulab Jamun’ (from Muzzafarnagar, 1.5 times bigger than an average mango) and ‘Sugar Baby’ (small, round and extraordinarily sweet, from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka) were only some of the reasons to visit the recently concluded International Mango Festival at Dilli Haat, Pitampura.
Organised by the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC) in collaboration with Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, National Horticultural Board and New Delhi Municipal Council, the three-day festival displayed a wide variety of mangoes, including alphonso, mallika, amrapali, himsagar, malda, meena, balia, sohan pasand and tukmi.
The festival is being held since 1988. To commemorate the silver jubilee, a pictorial souvenir was also released on the occasion.
While the first day of the event was relaxing, the second became more eventful with slogan writing competition, story telling by Story Ghar, mango quiz, magic show and other events. The third day, being a Sunday, saw the maximum participation.
“To be honest there is nothing new this year, we have just changed the presentation. The 26th mango festival will have more international varieties of mangoes,” said a Delhi Tourism official. “It is very encouraging to see more than 50,000 people turn up in three days.”
“I m surprised to see different varieties of mangoes which are as small as a grape and as big as a papaya,” said Deeksha, a young visitor.
