HYDERABAD: Come October and entire state of Telangana gears up for the most colourful floral festival, Bathukamma. But a drop in the sale of flowers was last thing flower vendors expected. A visit to the Gudimalkapur Flower market saw weak numbers. Flowers that were earlier sold at Rs 30 per kg came down to almost a third of their price and commonly bought flowers like Thangedu (Cassia Ariculata), Gunugu (Celosia) go for as low as Rs1 to Rs 10 a bunch.
Flowers like Banthi puvvulu (Marigold), Chamanthi puvvulu (Chrysanthemum) and varieties of rose are going for between Rs 120 - Rs180 a kilo. “We would have sold maximum 120 - 150 kgs of flowers since 5:00 in the morning, but this is nothing compared to the amount of sales last year. We easily sold over 350 kg flowers a day. Sales have surprisingly been very low adds Karunakaran, one of the wholesale flower vendors, who’s set shop at the beginning of the market.
“Usually there are scores of people who rush to buy varieties of flowers in pink, yellow, white, and red. This time around, last year, the market was crowded with trucks loading and unloading flowers. With Elections nearing and Telangana Jagruthi having announced that they’ll refrain from conducting celebrations under their banner, not a lot of sales have happened.
While most of the flowers are sourced from Bangalore, parts of Karnataka and other regions, wildflowers known for their medicinal value like Thangedu (Cassia Ariculata), Gunugu (Celosia) are procured from the forest. Small flower vendors who buy from the main market and resell it locally also complain of not having proper sales. Most say they resell from the batch that wasn’t sold out.
With recent allegations by Congress party that the Telangana Jagruthi used state funds for celebrations, its president and Nizamabad MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha has announced Bathukamma will not be conducted by Telangana Jagruthi. “With this statement comes a stop on promiting competitions like MahaBathukamma. There were lot of enthusiastic college students who bought flowers for competition. This year the crowd and the enthusiasm is low,” rues truck owner Raju as he drives away with a full load of flowers.