Rajib Banerjee inaugurates 17th Phool Mela

Kolkata: State Forest minister Rajib Banerjee inaugurated the 17th Kolkata Phool Mela, at Eden Gardens on Monday.

"Every year, we organise Phool Mela. This year, we are organising it in a different way to spread awareness about the mela. This year, we have invited school and college students. They have come here and are performing too," said Banerjee.

The Phool Mela 2020 is being organised by the Urban Recreation of Forestry Division (URFD) of West Bengal Forest Department, to promote flower farming among common masses and also disseminate the benefits of biodiversity and ecosystem.

During the three-day mela, children of Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy, Ahana Foundation and Durbar Mahila Swamanaya Samiti will be performing cultural programmes. School and college students will also participate in different competitions such as floral rangoli, poster making competition, recycling of plastic and rubber gardening, fancy and others.

"There is a huge response from the students in this regard. More than 200 students had already come to the competition in the morning. There are more than 37 schools, 15 colleges and 10 NGOs participating at the mela. Spot registration is continuing," said R N Saha, deputy conservator of Forests (URFD).

Different government departmental stalls are also there to share the information on social projects and other such pieces of information. Apart from the NGO, NGI (Next Generation Identification) stalls have also been set up to showcase different environmental topics.

"We have set up our stall (Wildlife Crime Control Bureau) for the first time at the ongoing Phool Mela. Through our stall, we want to make people aware of how wildlife crime can be stopped. If anyone sees any type of wildlife crime, then he/she should inform us. We will take immediate action," said P Bhutia, head constable of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau.