Delhi gets a taste of West Bengal, Bihar mangoes after five years

Mangoes from West Bengal and Bihar returned to Delhi tourism department’s 33rd annual mango festival after a hiatus of five years.  

 The three-day event, being held at Dilli Haat in Janakpuri, commenced on July 5 and will conclude on July 7.  

 The festival is celebrated to promote tourism in the national capital and bring mango lovers together to celebrate the supremacy of the king of fruits.

 Javed Amin, 42, a grower from West Bengal told Patriot that he is visiting the festival after five years. 

“We could not come last year as we did not receive a good stock of mangoes to display here. Huge expenses involved in transporting them to Delhi was also a reason to cancel our visit,” he said. 

He said that the best month to display the mangoes is June. 

“Since the festival is being organised in July, we could bring only 17 varieties of mangoes although a total of 56 varieties grow in our fields,” Amin added.

Dr DK Jaiswal, Assistant Professor at Bihar Agriculture University, pointed out at the same problem. 

“We have brought 19 varieties while we grow over 350 varieties of mangoes in the university fields. Since our season ends in June, we have limited stock to showcase,” he said.

 He said that they work to address the challenges of the mango farmers and growers of their state. 

“We sent a good stock of mangoes to Arab countries last year. This year we will transport the mangoes to America,” he said.

They had last visited the festival in 2019 for the 31st annual celebration.  

Mango growers from across the country including Lucknow, Bengaluru, Pant Nagar, Bhagalpur, Saharanpur, New Delhi, Bijnaur, Muzaffarnagar, and Sitapur displayed their traditional and hybrid varieties of mangoes to the visitors. 

Also Read: Mango Fiesta

Around 500 varieties are on display at the festival, including Langra, Chausa, Rataul, Hussainara, Ramkela, Kesar, Fazri, Mallika, and Amrapali. 

The festival will also see mango eating competition for women and men, mango quiz, slogan writing competition for children, cultural programmes and sales of mangoes and mango products and mango master classes by chefs.  

 Delhi Tourism has been organising mango festival since 1987 to celebrate the magnificent variety of flavours offered by the king of fruits.

 “We aim to provide exposure to the domestic mango industry by exploring the evergreen love for mango harboured by every Indian household. The festival also provides agro-industries and food processing industries the opportunity to display their products,” the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation said in a handout..