Japanese Sakura in full bloom in North East India

12 November 2015

Sakura (Cherry) in full blossom. in Shillong on 11 November 2015

If you ever wanted to see the Cherry Blossom festival in Japan, you don’t have to visit Japan anymore. You can have the full Cherry Blossom view in India right now. Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, is in full bloom with pink and white Cherry Blossoms all along the roadside and the famous Ward’s Lake.

To enjoy the Cherry Blossom festival, popularly known as Sakura/Hanami festival, people usually spend thousands of dollars and visit different parts of Japan during the month of March every year.

Lakhs of tourists visit Japan every year for this purpose. Realizing the importance of Cherry Blossom to promote socioeconomic development in the North East through eco-tourism, Prof Dinabandhu Sahoo, Director of Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development, a National Institute of Government of India initiated a major Cherry Blossom Festival Initiative in association with the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority and Forest Department, Government of Meghalaya in May 2015.

If you enter the city of Shillong from Umiam (and also in Mawphlang and Ward’s Lake) you will see hundreds of Cherry Blossom trees have been planted and lined up inside beautiful bamboo tree guards for protection. The impact of such initiative was also felt in Japan as a team of six people comprising the President and other office bearers of the Japanese Cherry Blossom Association visited India in September 2015 to spearhead the initiative, said Prof Sahoo.

Now, the Japanese Cherry Blossom Association in association with IBSD is planning to spearhead this movement in different parts of India. The Cherry Blossom, which is in full bloom in Shillong since the last one week, will only last for a maximum of a week to 10 days, which is giving a pinkish and whitish look to the city.

Prof Sahoo urged the local people as well as the tourists from all across the world to visit Shillong including Ward’s Lake to have a glimpse of this nature’s beauty. He said one could reach Shillong from Guwahati in just two hours road drive. The climate is very conducive and cool for the tourists at the moment.

Prof Sahoo said, ‘If we miss this opportunity, maybe we have to wait for one more year till next November’.

Albert Chiang PhD, Scientific Secretary to Director, IBSD
Institute Of Bioresources & Sustainable Development (IBSD)
Takyelpat, Imphal – 795001, Manipur (India)

A personal note about Cherry Blossom Festival Initiative by Prof Dinabandhu Sahoo, Director IBSD

Way back in 2013, Prof Dinabandhu Sahoo from Department of Botany, University of Delhi, was invited by IIM Shillong to deliver a TEDx talk on social entrepreneurship development program. During this trip, he saw a lone Cherry Blossom tree through his hotel window.

Fascinated by the pink color of this tree which is popularly known as Sakura in Japan, , he decided that if anytime during his lifetime, he gets a chance to serve in North East, he will try to organize the Cherry Blossom festival in India at Shillong.

Surprisingly, the very next year, his dream came true. He was appointed by the central government to head the Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development, a National Institute of the Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India. Immediately after assuming the charge, he made a trip to Shillong to see the Cherry Blossom but by that time, all the flowers had gone which he missed by a few days.

Determined to carry on with his objective, he contacted the State Government Departments in Meghalaya and pursued vigorously to start the Cherry Blossom Plantation in a systematic manner. With financial assistance from his institute, the Cherry Blossom plantation drive through avenue plantation was launched by Hon’ble Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Dr. Mukul Sangma, in May 2015 at Ward’s Lake Shillong.

When this program was reported in the Japanese media, the people from Japan came in September 2015 and decided to take this program forward in India. Although the Japanese have been spearheading the Cherry Blossom initiative in different countries like USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Nepal, they had never ventured to India although Cherry Blossom is of Himalayan origin.

Prof Dinabandhu Sahoo,
Director IBSD