It was a feast to remember for Delhi’s mango-lovers who got a taste of their favourites from 600 varieties of the “maharaja” of fruits at the three-day Mango Festival that ended at New Delhi Sunday.
With varieties such as “kela”, “elaichi”, “rasgulla” on offer, the festival at Dilli Haat, Pitam Pura, saw participation from 17 traditional growers of mangoes including Central Institute for Sub-Tropical Horticulture, Mustafa Orchards and Purkazi.
“We have displayed about 250 varieties of mangoes out of which only 5 to 6 types are for commercial use and the other 142 types are for the research purposes,” P.K. Saxena, from the Horticulture Experiment and Training Centre in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, told IANS.
“Rajeev, Saurabh and and Gaurav are the three variety of mangoes that can only be found in Saharanpur,” Saxena added.
The festival also displayed myriad varieties like “Sirki”, “Kensington”, “Amrapali”, “Mallika Fazli” and many more.
Rohit Kumar, who visited the mango festival with his family, said: “I never knew India had so many kinds of mangoes. I was amazed by how different these were from each other, though they looked similar from the naked eyes.”
The mangoes were displayed in three different halls and many of them were on sale as well. Other products made from the fruit like mango squash, and pickles were also on sale.
“The price of the mango depends on the production and this year the production hasn’t been great. So the prices are sightly higher varying from Rs.20 per gg for the Dashehri mango to Rs.60 per kg for the hybrid Mallika,” a stall owner said.
Other features of the fest were a mango-eating competition, mango quizzes and a mango slogan writing competition.
The festival was organised by Delhi government’s tourism department, Incredible India, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority and National Horticulture Board.