Mangaluru: The Rain Festival was inaugurated at Pilikula Biological Park, Vamanjoor here on June 14.
All the guests were traditionally welcomed with fried tamarind seeds, Jackfruit seeds and ginger juice. The programme was traditionally inaugurated by the Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim by weaving the coconut palm fronds.
Tulu Cinema Actor Naveen D Padil inaugurated the Umbrella exhibition cum sale by colouring an umbrella. Addressing the gathering, Naveen D Padil said, “When I think of Pilikula, the name of Bharat Lal Meena comes to my mind. The Deputy Commissioner has the power to bring changes to the district and I feel like I have come to a time when Bharat Lal Meena decided to develop Pilikula Nisargadhama. Later, all the Deputy Commissioners who had come to the district have continued his work and now, DC Ibrahim is showing special interest to organize such programmes. In the rainy season, people in the district from all walks of life celebrate the arrival of the monsoon. In earlier days, if someone would cough, Moodshedde TB hospital came to our mind. Now when we talk of Moodshedde, it is because of Pilikula. In Mangaluru, we don’t have many parks. The Kadri Park was green before but now it is dried up; the Tagore Park was also in good shape before. If the DC will take special interest to develop these parks, Mangaluru will have good parks.” He further said, “The District Administration has organized the ‘Rain festival’. Let us continue with lightning and thunder festivals too.” He congratulated the organizers for organizing the rain festival.
Later, Naveen D Padil was felicitated by DC Ibrahim. Addressing the gathering, Pradeep Kumar Kalkura said that earlier in the rainy season, the children would go to school playing in the rain water and the wet mud. “But now, we are protecting our children and dropping them to the school on our vehicles. Our intention now is that our children should spend their time inside the A/C room and we are not allowing our children to go out in the rain. Children today are disconnected from their surroundings. They need to experience these things. The district administration is striving hard to retain our tradition and culture. Our tradition and culture should spread around the country. The Deputy Commissioner has taken special interest to promote our culture by organizing various programmes in Pilikula.”
Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim said that even though a people friendly environment was created in Pilikula from the past 2 decades, not many people come here. “We have to find out whether such activities have reached the people or if the people are not interested to come to Pilikula. From the past two months, we have been organizing various programmes to attract people towards Pilikula. Next month, we will have a ‘Atidonji Dina’. We have plans to hold various programmes in Pilikula every month, so that people can come and spend their time in Pilikula Nisargadhama.”
A variety of umbrellas were exhibited. There was also sale of umbrellas, fish, jackfruits, jackfruit delicacies etc. Chennemane, Lagori, Kutti Donne and other rainy season games were also played by the guests. Small children enjoyed making and playing with paper boats.
Executive Director Pilikula Biological Park Prabhakar Sharma, Director Pilikula Biological Park Jayaprakash Bhandary and others were also present.