Festivals of nature's gift to the land : Failing to tap the potential
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 12 2015 -

A case of failing to tap the potential of what mother nature has to offer.

That should about sum up the situation in Manipur. A look at the reality will tell the story.

Lemon festival of Kachai, Ukhrul district. Pineapple festival of Andro and Khousabung.

Chilly festival of Sirarakhong, again Ukhrul district.

Orange festival of Tamenglong and the just introduced flower festival of Mao.

A more than enough indication that nature has indeed been kind.

The importance of festivals saluting the produce of nature should have dawned on the Government years back.

A look at the valley area too should make it more than clear that nature has indeed been kind.

Biggest fresh water lake in the North East region, in the form of Loktak lake and the only floating National park in Keibul Lamjao National Park but have the people and the State Government demonstrated that they do have it in them to fittingly reciprocate the abundance of nature ?

The answer should be obvious to all.

Why can’t the Kachai lemon, the Sirarakhong chilly and the Tamenglong orange and the Khousabung pineapple find a bigger market for themselves ?

Have these products been able to make their way outside the State ?

Or more specifically have the oranges from Tamenglong been able to penetrate the markets in Manipur ?

Or how about the chilly from Sirarakhong or the lemon from Kachai ?

All pointers that while farmers have been contributing their mite to come up with the products every year, not much thought has been given on how to market them.

This is where the Government need to take some lessons from the corporate world.

Chief Minister O Ibobi did talk about cold storage facilities to help the orange growers of Tamenglong but it is also important for the Government to keep in mind that there are other pressing issues that need to be looked into.

How about transportation ? Why does it take so long to cover the distance between Imphal and Tamenglong district headquarters ?

This is the same case with Kachai and Sirarakhong.

It is a matter of concern to see that while some States with surplus fish production have been able to export the products to other parts of the country, including Manipur, the oranges or chillies and lemons grown in Tamenglong, Sirarakhong and Kachai are not available in all parts of the State.

And remember fish is a perishable commodity.

Take note that while fishes from Andhra Pradesh can make their way here, oranges produced in Tamenglong find it hard to arrive at the market in Imphal or any other parts of the State.

Something, somewhere is wrong and this is a point that should have been looked into a long time back.

Improve communication. Set up infrastructure.

The people too need to come to the realisation that blocking highways and roadways will only hurt the common people.

Time to make the benefits of the different festivals percolate down to the people.