GUWAHATI: A river festival on the Assam-Meghalaya border will set the unity-in-diversity tone with a message to shun use of plastic items for a safer environment, come winter.
The fourth edition of the Drone-Sree-Dilma river festival to be held at Ukiam in lower Assam’s Kamrup district from January 9 to 12, 2020, will feature inclusion of a greater number of indigenous communities from both states apart from various activities and competitions.
“The newly-formed organising committee met today and finalised the dates of the festival. We are now gearing up to organise the event in a bigger and unique way than the previous editions. The endeavour will be to also make the festival plastic free for a safer environment,” Suneet P. Marak, general secretary of the committee, told The Shillong Times on Saturday.
The objective of the festival held at the venue marking the confluence of the Drone, Sree and Dilma rivers is to foster unity and integrity amid diversity among various indigenous communities apart from preserving the aquatic fauna in the rivers and promoting tourism.
“This time we are organising traditional fashion dress and cooking competitions among various indigenous communities such as Garo, Rabha, Karbi, Mising, Deuri, Tiwa among others. We are expecting indigenous communities from Meghalaya also to take part. Besides, we will also have traditional food festival, boat rowing contests and adventure sports in the itinerary,” Marak said.
The past editions of the river festival have witnessed footfalls close to 4000 people every day.
Asked about the assembly of several picnic parties at the site during the season and the threat activities such as littering pose to the area, he said, “We will be deploying more volunteers to strictly ensure that no plastic is used or thrown into the river or on the banks by people during the festival.”