SHILLONG: Visitors to the four-day multi-crore Cherry Blossom Festival here from Wednesday might just be left pondering over the “flowerless” cherry trees.
The state government has spent a whopping sum to host and promote the festival even as the name, “cherry blossom” belies what nature has in store – the flowers on the cherry trees are yet to bloom!
On the eve of the festival, this reporter visited two venues, Ward’s Lake and the surroundings of Tara Ghar, which is now used as a state guest house.
While there were a few cherry trees in Ward’s Lake, there were no flowers on them.
To add to the “delusion” workers were busy placing decorative pieces and bulbs on the trees.
Moreover, while cherry trees were nowhere to be seen at the Tara Ghar venue, a stage was being readied.
The other two venues are Polo 5th ground and JN Stadium.
When contacted, a state tourism department official, who did not want to be quoted, said, “Due to the change in weather condition and subsequent erratic rainfall, there may be a delay in flowering of cherry trees.”
The official hoped that by Saturday, the concluding day of the festival, there will be flowers on the trees.
“Last year, the festival was held
on November 15 and there were plenty of cherry blossoms,” the official said.
While the state government had spent over Rs 91 lakh to host the festival last year, this time, the budget has gone into crores of rupees with the forest department alone contributing Rs 87 lakh.
