Crowds throng Lalbagh flower show

Bengaluru

The 220th Indepen dence Day Lalbagh Flower Show drew large crowds on the week end. On Saturday and Sun day, huge crowds poured in through every gate of the old botanical garden after buying the tickets for the entry, which are priced at Rs 100 for adults and Rs 30 for children. Along with the crowds, there was also a large police presence assisting government officials in di recting the traffic through the designated paths. "The security and the bandobast is very well done. The police have done a good job, there is no hustle and bustle.

Usu ally it's only in the glass house but this time the security is there every where so it's good for the crowds. We make it a point to come every year and we take many photos because we live abroad," said Sarvarunissa, a visitor at the show who was ac companied by her hus band Pasha. Visitors walked around in the large park with the sun shining on them and enjoying the setting. However, many could be seen looking for water and shade with the water dispenser in an unusable state. 

“There is no drinking wa ter facility here. The one dispenser I saw was bro ken, probably because so many people used it. They didn’t allow us to bring in our water bottles also be cause they were plastic,” said Pasha. He added that if they had mentioned it in the publicity for the show, it would have helped them as they would’ve brought metal bottles, especially due to the large distanc es that people needed to cover in the sun. he Glory of Ganga Em pire and information on the 4th Century empire was scattered through the large park, with most at the Glass House.

But visitors to the main exhibit stated that due to the crowd management, the security was pushing the crowds towards the ex its faster than they could take the time to appreci ate the exhibits. "There's a lot of crowd and they were telling us to go fast so we couldn’t read everything about the Ganga Empire. But the flower arrangements were really wonderful," said Athiq, as he and his family exited the glass house. Although the show had been going on for two days, the Horticulture De partment was still busy with setting a few things up such as two large wood carvings made out of 200 year old wood.

"It's a very busy day for us but it's nice to see peo ple coming and enjoying themselves," said Joint Director of Horticulture Dr. M. Jagadeesh, while moni toring the ongoing work. The flower show was the main draw but there were several other attractions in the park as well. One such exhibit on millets included a small model village with huts and a central temple. It also had a small model farm with real ragi grass. The exhibit was aimed at drawing attention to millets as a food source, shown in its traditional environment.

The Flower Show also gave an opportunity to businesses like nurser ies, traditional food pro ducers and Government of Karnataka-partnered companies. For such companies there was a small tent where the companies showed their products like millet malt powder, chips, honey and coconuts. There was something for everyone and families could be seen spending their entire day in Lalbagh.