Hyderabad: Nursery Mela ends on colourful note

Necklace Road: After providing succour to almost thousands of citizens especially the plant lovers, the five-day 9th Grand Nursery Mela at Necklace Road, that began on January 28 finally concluded on a colourful on Sunday with Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan gracing the closing event.

There were stalls full of decorated stones, pebbles, perlite, vermiculite, urban drip irrigation system, bird houses, seeds, herbs, vegetable flowers seeds, garden tools, bamboo, hydroponic, vertical gardening system and grow bags in the grand gala event.

Besides, a variety of flower, fruit and bulb saplings, seeds, seedlings, organic fertilizers, coco peat, pots, grow bags, vertical gardening, hydrophobic, farmhouse and terrace gardening equipment were put on to display in the mela. There were a wide variety of medicinal plants too like cactus, succulent, arcades, ademium besides exotic plants curated under one roof.

The average footfall was around 10,000 visitors per day in the Mela while weekdays saw a whopping 25 to 30 thousand at the floral event. There were around 120 to 150 stalls set up at the event who secured the space by depositing an average amount of Rs 20,000 per stall according to the size and width. The organizer fixed Rs.20 per head as an entry fee for the event that fetched them nearly Rs 2 lakh per day while Rs 5 – Rs 6 lakh on weekends during the five-day long nursery mela.

"According to the conservative estimation the daily footfall at the event comes narrowly down to 10,000 visitors while the number goes up to a whopping 25 to 30 thousand on weekdays. We have sold out much of our products. Generally we never offer such prices in general days to the public but the Nursery Mela is something different. We closed the day with cheers on our faces besides the visitors too," informed Mohammed Zakaullah, a stall owner at the event.

Due to a Covid-19 pandemic, he further said, people exponentially adopted terrace gardening systems in their houses. This has brought a new trend into rolling as more and more people now prefer organic foods and veggies.

"There were around 120 to 150 stalls of different agro based companies, firms and start ups. Even the artificial jewelers, dry fruits of Kashmir and peanut Chikkey (brittle) stalls also been permitted to set their stalls to offer a variety of products for the visitors," Rajesh, another stall owner. "It's really an amazing experience this time as this Grand Nursery Mela provides a win-win opportunity to both the exhibitors and the plant lovers together. Both of us were benefited with the event as many," said an elated Himanshu Vemula, who set up a stall of bio organic fertilisers.